The shared universe
by Justsomesquidiot
Summary: Some events from a shared universe me and a few other writers created. All of our canons still exist, along with some new characters.
1. Pardon me, sir?

**A nice dinner in the shared universe.**

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The cane made a small noise every time he set it down.

Why he had decided to walk today, he didn't know.

Fizz wasn't normally one to walk.

Of course, walking was a strong word. With his leg being all screwed up and all.

His fight with Kaurna had messed with something in his leg, quite badly, if that wasn't obvious enough.

This shared universe he was in had been nothing but trouble. This wasn't even the first time he had messed up his leg!

But still, it's where he was stuck, at least for the moment. Not that he minded. He still had contact with everyone back home, and he had some new friends here.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Fizz looks over to see an inkling, very nervously walk up to him.

"Yes? What is it, I'd really like to get home."

"Are you... Fizz?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you remember me?"

Fizz turns to face him completely. His glance at the cane is not unnoticed.

"No. Don't think so. Why? Should I?"

He shuffles a bit.

"It's Terry. We were in gym class... And you helped me get a job at the news station?"

Fizz recoils back.

"Shit! You're... Alive?! No way!"

"Yeah... After I passed out in our world I woke up here."

"Lucky you then. Look, I've gotta get going, I have a reservation at a restaurant."

Fizz starts to turn away.

"But, I wanted to ask something!"

Fizz sighs and turns back to him.

"Make it quick please, reservation."

"...How is Alicia?"

Fizz shrugs.

"I honestly have no clue. I know she visits your grave every year, but other than that, I just don't know."

He sighs.

"I miss her so much..."

"Huh? Wasn't she your rival though? You two were constantly going at it."

"At the end, just before we shot, I heard her say she loved me. I just... Really want to see her again."

"I could probably help with that. If only for a bit."

He looks up, hope in his eyes.

"Really?"

"I can try anyway. let's see how it goes."

Fizz claps his hands, opening a portal.

"Go on through. You can find Alicia once you're out."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Fizz waves him off and begins limping away, hearing the portal close behind him with a whooshing noise.

"Poor guy. But no time to worry about that now."

He eventually arrives at the restaurant, taking to leaning against the wall outside the door.

He quickly opens his cane, takes a pill out, and swallows it.

He breathes a sigh of relief and pats his leg.

"And the pain is gone once again. Thank fuck Ash had these pills."

He checks the time on his phone and sees he still has a bit of time before his reservation.

"I should pick up some champagne. Might help him loosen up."

Fizz takes a look at a wine store across the street.

"Huh. Convenient."

Carefully limping his way across the street, he enters the store and goes up to the counter.

"Hey there! Got anything you're looking for?"

He leans on the counter to support his leg.

"Yeah, you got any champagne for octolings?"

"Octolings? Yeah, I've got a few that are widely available down there."

"Give me whichever one you consider the best. Full bottle."

The lady grabs a bottle from a shelf behind her and sets it down on the counter.

"That'll be 80 credits please."

Fizz blinks.

"For one bottle?"

"It's common down there, not up here. Not only that, but this is luxury champagne."

Fizz shrugs and passes over the credits, taking the bottle and putting it in his coat.

"Thanks."

"No problem. If you don't mind me asking, who's it for?"

"A friend. Of sorts."

The lady nods.

"They must mean a lot to you then."

"In a way, I suppose."

Fizz limps out of the store again and gets back to the restaurant, taking his spot on the wall again.

They arrive a few minutes later.

He passively waves at them, and they both don't do a good job hiding their confusion.

He waves back.

Interloper, and his... Let's say date, Kaurna.

Interloper leads her over to Fizz, despite the slight signs she was making to avoid him.

"Hey Fizz... Why're you here?"

Kaurna seems slightly annoyed.

"Yes, I would much like to know as well."

Her broken inkish was especially noticable. She hadn't been in inkopolis enough to learn the language yet. Compared to Ash, who knew the language the moment she came here.

"Oh, no reason. Just figured I bring this champagne to you guys."

He pulls the bottle out of his jacket and holds it up for them.

"I-I don't drink."

Fizz wasn't suprised. Of course, that's why he picked this specific champagne.

"I drink, some."

He smiles and holds the bottle out to her.

"Then it goes to the lady of the hour."

She hesitates for a second before taking it.

"Thanks..."

Interloper nudges Kaurna and points in the building.

"I'll meet you inside, alright?"

"Alright..."

She walks inside, leaving Fizz and interloper alone.

He crosses his arms.

"So why are you really here?"

"You had a reservation, right?"

"Yeah, I called ahead."

"Well... So do I."

He seems surprised by that. Not sure why.

"Really? ...By yourself?"

Typical.

"Nah, I'm taking Ash out."

"And Sarah's ok with that?"

No, I'm clearly going against her wishes. What do you think?

Of course, he doesn't actually say that.

"It's more of a treat then anything. We're actually gonna... Go for it... when we get home though."

"Ah."

There's a sort of awkward silence for a bit. He's trying to think of something to say.

"So where's Ash? I don't see her."

"She's coming, don't worry."

He nods and looks inside.

"Well I should be getting inside. Can't keep a lady waiting, right?"

Fizz chuckles slightly.

"Yup. I'll see you inside."

He walks inside, glancing behind him Ashe goes in.

It doesn't take long for Ash to show up.

She grins and runs up to Fizz.

"Hey! Thanks for taking me out!"

"We haven't even eaten yet."

"So? You're still taking me out."

Fizz shrugs and gestures for her to come inside.

They are seated, and after an exchange of waves from interloper's table, begin looking at the menus.

"Is that interloper?"

"Mhmm."

"Who's that he's with?"

"His girlfriend, or so I assume."

He looks over to the other table, seeing Kaurna make a disgusted face. He must've told her what he was going to be doing that night.

"They planning anything special?"

"No idea. Not what we're doing, I can assure you."

"Laaaame."

"That's just how they are."

Their food arrives, and Ash immediately starts digging in. She notices Fizz's rather empty plate.

"Not a heavy eater, are you?"

"Not particularly."

"Why's that?"

"Picky eater."

Time passes, with both tables finishing their meals. Interloper and Kaurna get up first and leave.

"Almost done?"

Ash nods.

"This stuff is so good!"

Fizz smiles and looks torward the door.

"Wonder if they stuck around..."

The waiter appears with the bill, and Fizz quickly pays.

He and Ash get up and walk outside.

They pretty quickly run into the other two, making out in front of the building.

Interloper sees them and pulls away from Kaurna to speak.

"Oh! You're here!"

Fizz looks between the two.

"We interrupting something?"

Kaurna looks slightly disappointed, and also slightly annoyed.

"No, we were waiting for you and got bored."

Fizz is about to comment on that, when Kaurna moves forward.

"So you are the one called Ash? Pleasure to be meeting you."

She holds out her hand, and Ash looks at it for a second before taking it.

"Likewise. But, if you don't mind me asking, why do you talk like that?"

"I am not speaking the inkling well... Still learning. Still new to city."

"Ah, I see."

Fizz waits for Ash to move back before speaking up again.

"You two got anything special planned?"

"Not sure. I'm taking her home after this. We may share a few kisses there."

"Figured as much. We should be going home ourselves."

"What-"

"No conversation? Shame."

The interruption stops interloper from saying anything for a few seconds.

"Well, we'll be going too."

He holds out his arm, and Kaurna grabs onto it.

"I guess we'll be seeing you then."

Fizz nods.

"Mhmm."

Ash then grabs onto Fizz's arm. He wasn't expecting that.

Interloper grins.

"Have fun!"

Fizz rolls his eyes.

"You too."

"We will! Many thankings for the champagne!"

Fizz smiles and nods at her.

"No problem!"

Interloper turns to Kaurna and takes the bottle.

"Just drink responsibly."

"I do. "

She pauses for a second.

"Want a sip?"

He grumbles back.

"I said I don't drink."

"Just ooone?"

He sighs and gives the bottle back to her.

"Just one."

"Yaaaaay!"

They walk off, talking about the night they have ahead of them.

Ash rubs Fizz's arm a bit.

"So why the champagne?"

Fizz shrugs.

"I figured they needed to let loose for a night."

Ash giggles.

"Let's hope they take the hint then. In the meantime..."

She turns Fizz and kisses him. Hard.

She then whispers into his ear.

"How about you and I get home and do our own thing?"

She runs a hand down Fizz's chest, who brushes his tentacles back and nods.

"Good boy. Let's get moving before it gets too late."

Ash grabs his hand and pulls him along, with Fizz making sure she doesn't mess up his leg too badly in the process.


	2. Kaurna vs Fizz

**This actually takes place before the first chapter. It was also written by eaglebyte. Check out his story sometime, hmm?**

Josiah walked down the street to his house, anticipating the arrival. A couple days ago, a strange portal had opened up in his backyard, revealing what appeared to be Inkopolis. He left it alone for a good while, but eventually, curiosity had gotten the better of him. That, and there were loud noises coming from it constantly. So, with some slight hesitation, he entered it. On the other side was what was known as a "shared universe:" a place where he, along with other characters from other various Splatoon fanfictions, would be able to meet and chat, along with other things.

He arrived at his door and rushed through the house, grabbing a pop out of the fridge before heading out back. He turned back to the house and pushed aside a couple shrubs on the side of it, revealing the portal. Pop bottle tucked under his arm, he crawled through.

Darkness and coldness swirled around him. He felt weightless, as if he could fly, and yet he felt heavy as a brick, destined to sink far below the surface of the ocean. He felt hot, as if he were approaching the sun, and yet felt cold at the same time, almost like he was heading for the arctic. Soon, in front of him, he saw light, rapidly growing brighter and brighter. He then reached the end of the portal.

"Ack!" he exclaimed, tripping out into the Square. Sitting there at a table were three of his friends, Fizz, Ngyes, and Interloper. Of course, they had _real _names, but here, they used nicknames. To his friends, Josiah was known as Eagle, a request he made mainly because he thought it sounded cool.

"Oh, hey, Eagle," Interloper said. In his hand was a cup of hot chocolate. A quick glance around the Square revealed that it was slightly less crowded than normal, due to the fact that there was snow on the ground. Yes, the time in the shared universe was quite different than Josiah's. While in his Inkopolis, it was currently August, here in the shared Inkopolis, it was the middle of February.

"Hello," Josiah replied. "How goes it?"

"Not too bad. Betty left after I beat her in Squidlancer, and Fizz had some nightmare he won't tell me about." Betty was an Octoling that they had played some video games with the day before.

"Damn, kinda feel bad for Fizz, probably reliving something that happened."

"I don't think he has feelings," Ngyes joked. The three of them laughed, Fizz staring at his phone. Ngyes took a sip of his cocoa that he had and spit it out immediately.

"Ouuuuccchhh," he cried, fanning his tongue. "Guess I didn't really want to taste anything anyways. Worth it though."

"Too bad," Josiah replied. "Crusty Sean really knows how to cook up a batch of cocoa."

"Hmmm," Interloper thought. "Not much to do, is there? The outdoor stages are closed today and I'm kinda tired of video games."

"Well, maybe we could still do a Turf War or two," Josiah suggested. "I'm pretty certain that they'll only have indoor stages today."

"Not a bad idea," Interloper replied.

Ngyes pulled a Golden Dynamo Roller out of his bag, seemingly magically. Then again, the whole "shared universe" thing was already magical, so that wasn't out of place. Interloper pulled out a Sploosh-o-Matic, leaving Josiah the only one without a weapon.

"Hang on," he said, sprinting through the portal. He ran into his house and opened a secret door in the floor of his room. Inside were two weapons: an Aerospray MG and a Splatling. He grabbed the Aerospray, as it would be the simplest to use after two years of not using a weapon. He also grabbed his coat on the way out, as it was colder in the shared universe than in his. A quick trip through the portal later, he was back in the Square.

"Alright, I'm gonna suck, but here's this."

"At least you'll ink a lot of turf," Interloper encouraged as Josiah took a look at his special.

"Ah, got a Curling Bomb Launcher, that's pretty decent."

"Splashdown," said Interloper.

"Actually, I think I'll use my Hero Charger Replica," said Ngyes, swapping the weapons.

"Just don't do that splashdown into water," warned Josiah, referring to an incident where Ngyes was splatted and Fizz had been forced to carry his little ghost squid around in a jar until they invaded an Octarian base to set up a spawn point.

"Uh, we'll respawn, Eagle," Interloper said.

"Oh, right, two years without spawn pads makes you overlook that."

"The hell are you two idiots doing?" asked Fizz, looking up from his phone.

"Gonna go do Turf War," replied Ngyes, holding up his Charger.

"Screwww that," replied Fizz.

"Why?" questioned Josiah. "I thought you liked Turf Wars."

"Yeah, what're ya gonna do, Fizz?" Interloper added.

"You guys can do whatever," he replied. "Just haven't played Turf War in, what, over a year now."

"I'm at two years, so I'm probably worse than you," Josiah said, attempting to convince him to play with them.

"It's not that I'm bad, I just been done with it. Have no need to play anymore, no want, either."

"Oh, you're _done_. Yeah, I have no choice." Josiah's stomach rumbled. "Well, I'm heading out." He began walking towards Crusty Sean's truck. He didn't hear Interloper calling after him "Wai, wait, no-Aaand he's gone."

After ordering his food, he headed back over to find Interloper and Fizz in a conversation about his cane he was carrying.

"Huh, still have my cane," Fizz said. "Guess I took it by habit."

"Ah," Interloper replied.

"Mmm, these fries are good," Josiah said, walking back up. "Want some?" He held out the tray to Interloper and Fizz.

"Sure!" Interloper said, taking some.

"I was kinda hungry, sorry 'bout walking out on you three like that."

"Nah, it's fine."

Fizz opened a portal, which coughed a tray of fries into his hands.

"Man, wish I could do that," Josiah said. Interloper then transported a Tentacola to himself, seemingly rubbing it in that Josiah had no magical powers. "I have to walk to get my damn food."

"Meh, I can do it, as long as I don't overdo it."

"Maybe I should get a portal maker in my arm, you know, so I don't constantly have to ask you guys to do it for me."

"Hey, I still super jump places," Interloper claimed.

"Meh, who needs super jumping when you have a portal maker? I'm already part cyborg, might as well get an upgrade. After I fix it, that is."

"Wait, what's wrong with your arm, Eagle?" Ngyes looked at Josiah.

"I, uh, fell down the stairs," Josiah said, showing the cracks in the plastic sheathing in his arm.

"Oof," replied Ngyes.

"Then onto a train platform. _Then _out a window."

"Oof and oof."

"Has a lot of power at least, should'a seen what it did to my table. Scared the shit out of Aileen, I'll tell you what."

"Heh."

"Hey, we should get in a Turf War, though. Still up for it?" Both Ngyes and Interloper nodded.

"I'll be having none of that," replied Fizz.

"I'll get a fourth player, then." He hopped back through the portal, this time running over to Aileen's house.

"Hey, Aileen!" he shouted at the door. She opened it, and Josiah ran in. "Wanna go with me and do a round or two of Turf War?"

"Wait, that's banned. How?"

"Come with me, I'll show you."

"O-okay." She ran to her bedroom and came back with an Explosher. "Alright, lead the way."

Josiah ran out, and pushed her through the portal when they got there. The two appeared in the Square, and Josiah greeted them.

"Hey, guys, this is Aileen, my girlfriend." Aileen slightly blushed and waved.

"Hey," she said.

"I'm Interloper."

"Nice to meet you. Guess I know where Josiah goes now."

"Josiah?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm Josiah," he said. "I go by Eagle outside my 'friend circle.'"

"Ah," said Interloper. He looked down at his phone. "Oh, hey, Kaurna wants to watch us play. She'll be here in a minute."

"Cool," said Josiah. An object was then seen in the sky, growing bigger and bigger. Moments later, it slammed into the ground, revealing another Octoling.

"I am here!" she exclaimed.

"Hey!" said Interloper, waving.

"So are these friends of yours?" she asked.

"We're allllll friends here. Except we're not." Fizz snickered.

"I do remember you, Fizz," Kaurna said. "Not these two." She pointed at Josiah and Aileen.

"Oh, right. I'm Eagle, and this is my girlfriend, Aileen."

"Well, we gonna battle then?" Aileen held up her Explosher. "I'm ready to go."

"Yeah, we are." Interloper motioned towards Kaurna. "Oh and she is the one that modified my game system." Basically, she had put components from various Splatendo, InkStation, and SplatBox consoles into one, allowing it to play a large game library, along with installing ROMs of Octarian games.

"Oh, nice." Josiah complimented. "Pretty badass rig you made there."

"It was the not hard!" Kaurna exclaimed, her Octarian accent clipped with excitement.

"I'm impressed."

"Anyways, I think we should get in there, the lobbies are bound to fill up eventually." Interloper began walking towards the lobby.

"Not a bad idea." The other three began following him when they heard a whack from behind. They turned around to see Fizz hit Kaurna in the side with his cane. His cheek was red. Kaurna grabbed the cane and tossed it about twenty feet away.

"Hey, we should ignore this." Josiah began to return to the lobby, but Interloper grabbed his shoulder.

"Not yet, I wanna see Fizz get owned."

Fizz grabbed Kaurna by the neck, tossing her onto a table. She immediately got up and rushed towards Fizz, kicking him in the gut. Fizz stumbled back slightly, but then gave her a harsh uppercut, which she responded to with a kick to the groin.

"Guys, come on," Aileen said. "This isn't cool."

Fizz growled and tripped, which Kaurna took as an opportunity to kick him in the face. Fizz then got up quickly and kicked Kaurna in the chest, knocking her over. She grabbed his leg and flipped him over, kicking his side.

"They ever gonna be done?" asked Josiah.

"Nah, Kaurna's at least gonna keep going for at least a half hour, depending on if Fizz is down by then or not. Besides, it's Fizz's fault, blame him."

Fizz grabbed her leg and violently slammed her head into a table.

"And I thought Josiah's fight with Eight was bad," Aileen commented.

"Hey, in my defense, I never used my right arm!"

Kaurna recovered and got up behind Fizz, putting him in a choke hold. Fizz elbowed her in the chest and smacked her face.

"Okay, I'm ending this." Josiah walked up to the two as Kaurna kicked Fizz in the groin again. Josiah pushed the two of them apart, smacking them both in the face with his cybernetic arm, just to get his point across.

After a couple of breaths, Kaurna spoke up. "You are very lucky he had stop the fight," she said.

"Really? Like you were winning." Fizz spat some ink on the ground.

"No need to be putting the humiliation on you."

"Humiliation? You had to kick me below the belt, _twice._"

"Being your fault you can not block."

"You shouldn't have to pull a cheap move in the first place!"

"Fight to win. That is rule number one."

"You smacked her with your stupid stick in the first place," Aileen called.

"No, she bitch slapped me first."

"Aaand a little squid stole it," Interloper said, looking at a kid who ran off with Fizz's cane.

"You owe me a new cane," Fizz said, glaring at Kaurna.

"You have not the need of the cane," she replied, eyes narrowing.

"Dammit, Fizz, it's just a cane." Josiah grunted.

"Do I _look _like I can walk now?" He winced as he put pressure on his leg.

"Uh, not really-"

"Ugh, guess I'm doing it myself." He opened a portal and thrust his hand in. When he brought it out, his cane was in it.

"Fine, get your stupid cane."

"Oh, and also…" Fizz pointed the cane and a quiet "thunk" was heard. A small dart about the size of a fry hit Kaurna in the neck, and she collapsed. "I win."

"Kaurna!" Interloper rushed over at her. "What'd you do?"

"Shit, Fizz, that went too far," Josiah agreed.

"Relax, it was a tranquilizer."

"Riiiiiight," Josiah said sarcastically. "Knowing you, it could be anything." Fizz lifted the cane, poing it at Josiah. "Eep! Sorry, nevermind!"

"Geez, no wonder everyone tries to kill you," Interloper said.

"Why'd I agree to come here?" Aileen questioned herself.

"Good question," replied Fizz.

"Well, guess Aileen and I are gonna hightail it outta here," Josiah said, grabbing her hand. "We gotta, uh...walk our sea cucumber."

"Alright, see ya later," Fizz said.

"Bye," said Aileen. The two then jumped through the portal. After resurfacing, Josiah headed inside to hang up his coat and stash his weapon. When he came downstairs, Aileen was there on the couch, and upon seeing him, she walked up to him and slapped him in the face.

"Ow, what the hell was that?"

"Really? You hang out with _that _kind of people? The ones who attack each other, who don't seem to like each other?"

"Geez, you sound like my mom."

"I'm serious, Josiah!"

"Okay, yes, I do hang out with them. They normally aren't like this, I don't know what happened to cause Fizz to flip out on Kaurna like that. But they're pretty cool people and I enjoy my time with them."

"You sure? You don't need to hang out with them if you don't want to."

"No, are you kidding? I'm not changing anything, they're so fresh!"

"'Fresh.' Haven't heard that term in a while. Alright, whatever you want, then. Just be careful, okay? Don't get yourself hurt."

"Alright, I will."

Aileen left, leaving Josiah alone. He wandered back outside eventually, crawling back through the portal.


	3. The visit to the octarians

**I Don't remember what I was gonna put here.**

"So are we leaving or what?"

Nyges and interloper both look at Fizz.

He taps the table impatiently.

"Sure."

Ngyes shrugs.

"K, let's go."

Interloper taps the table.

"I suggest valley or canyon. Maybe gulch. Gorge is a no go."

Fizz nods.

"Let's go to canyon. Better chance of my octolings being around."

Interloper rolls his eyes.

"Alright..."

Fizz throws his hands out.

"What? It's safer!"

"I wouldn't classify anything your octolings do as 'safe'."

Nyges nods.

"A word. Ash."

Well that's not suprising. Ngyes doesn't particularly like octolings to begin with.

Interloper chuckles and claps his hands together.

"Well, Cass is likely back in the gorge, so we shouldn't have to worry about her.

He points at Fizz.

"Open a portal Fizz!"

Fizz lazily claps his hands, opening a portal next to their table.

"Mmmk."

Nyges gets up and start to move to it, bit interloper beats him to it and goes inside.

Nyges shrugs and steps inside himself.

Fizz, being the show off he is, slides in.

Interloper is gesturing outwards at the small shack in front of them.

"Here we are! Cuttlefish cabin! We take a few turns in the kettles and we should wind up in one of the underground city areas of the domes."

Ngyes gives a thumbs up.

"Ok, sounds legit!"

Fizz looks over the many kettles around and turns back to interloper.

"So which one goes to the canyon?"

Interloper stares back at at Fizz, blankly.

"We're in the canyon."

Fizz grows confused and looks around.

Ngyes tries to hold in a laugh.

"My dude."

Interloper points to the cabin again.

"See the cabin?"

Fizz points at it, and then points around.

"Wait, isn't... Alright, my canyon looks different."

"You didn't notice the last were here? That was in the domes."

Fizz taps his cane down a few times.

"Wasn't that the valley?"

Interloper is about to say something, but suddenly stops and looks down.

"...I...don't remember..."

Fizz shrugs.

"Well it has been a while.

"Yeah..."

"Fuck plotholes."

Both fizz and interloper turn to look at ngyes, who's staring at them with an annoyed expression.

Interloper completely ignored that statement.

"Well, onto the potted plant cities! Woo!"

He falls backwards into a kettle.

"Follow me!"

Fizz shrugs and steps up to it.

"Yeah, alright."

Nyges does the same.

"Sure."

Interloper grabs the both of them and drags them through the kettle, and through some particularly bad turns.

They all exit the kettle.

"Aaaand we're here."

Fizz hisses in pain, and rubs his leg.

"Hit my leg on one of the turns back there..."

Interloper looks around and turns back to the other two.

"Normally you'd be taken to where the zapfish is kept. Unless you know your way..."

Nyges brushes himself off and stretches a bit.

"Not gonna question how you do..."

Fizz nods.

"Neither am I."

Interloper turns back and looks at the dome in front of him.

"Welcome to dome... Not sure... But hey, potted plant buildings!"

Fizz looks around in confusion.

"What in the world..."

"Have you never looked down when visiting these settlements? You can see these things everywhere."

Fizz kicks a rock and tries to steady his cane on the uneven ground.

"I've never these settlements."

Ngyes shuffles back, looking super uncomfortable.

"Neither have I... Too busy."

He coughs.

Interloper scowls and turns back to Fizz.

"I'll bet... So how do we walk around without getting caught?"

Ngyes speaks up.

"I don't really know-"

"I've got wigs."

This is the point where ngyes and interloper silently agree that fizz is absolutely insane.

"Wigs?"

Ngyes immediately flips his hoodie up, covering his head.

Interloper sighs and takes one of the wigs.

"Fine, I'll take a stupid wig."

Ngyes makes a mock whine noise.

"Aw, too bad. So sad. Also, why do you have wigs?"

"And why is it so itchy..."

"Ash made them. She makes a lot of things"

"I figured that."

"But why's it so itchy. I mean, it itches bad."

Fizz smirks.

"Why not take it off and look at it?"

Interloper takes the wig off, and picks out some liner material.

"Crummy liner material..."

He tosses it to the side and puts the wig back on.

Fizz points at him with his cane.

"You still look like an octoling without the wig."

"I do?"

Fizz nods.

"It's what the wig does."

Interloper pauses.

"The wig makes me look like an octoling when I'm not wearing it."

Fizz does an annoyed sigh.

"When you put it on, your physical image is replaced with that of a basic octoling."

"Male or female?"

"It'll match your gender."

"Ah. Hm. Basic. Think I'd be intermediate... Or advanced..."

Ngyes scoffs.

"But why would that exist?"

Fizz shrugs.

"So we can have a plot device to sneak into this place."

Ngyes groans.

"This is like splatfest all over again..."

"Well should I assume I look like an octoling version of myself?"

"Mhmm."

"Huh. Would I notice?"

"You should see the tentacle, even though it isn't actually there."

Interloper goes and looks into a puddle of water nearby.

"I look pretty good as an octoling..."

Ngyes grumbles and turns away.

"Yeah, I'll pass."

Fizz puts on his with as interloper walks back over with a small grin.

"I should surprise kaurna with this!"

Fizz reaches his hand out.

"Here, gimme your wig."

He hands it back over.

"Alright, why?"

While initially planning to tell him immedietly, Fizz decides to mess with him a bit. So he screws around with a setting before giving it back. He quickly puts it back on.

"Alright, what did you do?"

Fizz smiles.

"Made it permanent."

They both are stunned for a second.

"The fuck-"

"What!? No! I wanna be able to change back!"

Fizz can't contain his laughter and loses it.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!"

Ngyes rolls his eyes and crosses his arms once more.

Interloper registers the information slowly.

"...Fuck you Fizz... What'd you actually do?"

"I did make it permanent, only until you switch the wig off. Normally it wears off after about an hour."

"Okay, So I look like an octoling until I turn it off. Okay."

Fizz takes his off and messes with his settings, silently wishing he was actually an octoling boy.

"Well that's good. If I looked like this forever and kaurna didn't believe it was me, I'd have your head."

Ngyes taps his foot impatiently.

"So, are we gonna move?"

"Sure."

He begins walking, and after only about a second or so of walking turns back.

"You guys coming?"

Ngyes moves forward.

"Well duh."

They walk for a short time, seeing and hearing nothing. Except for Fizz's cane echoing whenever he sets it down.

Interloper suddenly stops and looks around.

"Hm."

Fizz walks up with him.

"Where is everybody?"

"Must be a special occasion..."

Ngyes catches up.

"Who knows?"

Fizz checks around and starts forward again.

"Special occasions never spell good news in my experience."

Ngyes nods.

"Yeah, same."

He shivers.

"Geez, this place is pretty creepy... It's like one of those cookie cutter neighborhoods you send on TV..."

"That's... Not wrong."

Ngyes takes a look into an alley, and thinks he sees something move. He tries not to think about it and keeps moving.

Fizz turns to the other two

"Should we be searching around?"

Interloper thinks for a moment.

"Maybe the commander is holding a rally or something... That usually requires attendance."

Fizz shrugs.

"Possibly, it is WAY too fucking quiet around here."

Ngyes hums in agreement and moves away from the buildings.

Interloper takes another look around.

"Well, if it's accurate to my octo canyon, then the commander could either be talking about the situation with other settlements, or about how to capture Callie's fashionista charm. Canyoners really got into her style..."

Ngyes scoffs.

"They probably aren't too happy about Ash."

Fizz lifts a finger.

"Assuming this is where she came from. Again, it could've been the valley."

Interloper pulls out a notebook.

"From what I've looked into, she's either regarded as dead, or a traitor. If she came back here, she'd be executed or put under stage 3 hypnosis. Really bad, I'll tell ya."

Ngyes winces and fizz shakes his head.

"Yeah, no. That's not happening."

"Same goes for any octoling who left. Luckily though, we're some loyal octolings who would never betray their kind, right?"

He nudges ngyes's shoulder, who just looks like he wants to die.

"Sure..."

Fizz shakes his head at Interloper, who backs off.

"I'll stop."

Ngyes shoves him back.

"Yeah, that was unnecessary."

"I'm sorry."

Fizz scoffs.

"No you're not."

"Right... Well, standing around here won't accomplish anything."

He begins walking again, motioning for the other two to follow him.

Fizz's cane echo becomes increasingly noticable as they move into a more cement based area.

Ngyes sighs.

"This place seems to strech on forever..."

Interloper seems to be getting more nervous the more they walk.

"This is so weird, usually there's patrols around the city... But it's fucking empty!"

"My cane echo is freaking me out..."

Interloper takes a look at it.

"Can you try and muffle it? Our footsteps are loud enough as it is."

"How do you expect me to muffle a cane?"

"Fabric? I dunno."

He suddenly stops and snapshis fingers.

"Wait. Look in the houses."

Ngyes goes over and looks through a window.

"Why?"

"Are there people's belongings inside?"

"Yeah? What else would you put inside a house?"

"So it wasn't an evacuation..."

Fizz scratches his teeth.

"What is up with this place..."

"HELLLLO? HEEEEEEELLO?"

Fizz slaps a hand over Interloper's mouth as ngyes tries to recover from the shock of that yell.

"Are you TRYING to get us killed?!"

Interloper moves Fizz's hand.

"You got a better idea?"

Ngyes looks up.

"Uhh... Guys."

An octoseeker spots the trio, and they all freeze.

"I'd say yes."

Fizz nervously bites his lip.

"No, just normal everyday octolings!"

He turns to the other to and hisses at them.

"Be. Normal."

"I got this."

Interloper steps forward and begins speaking octarian to the octoseeker.

Fizz stares at interloper in shock.

He leans torward Fizz.

"What?"

"How the fuck...?"

"Do I know octarian?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"I've been around octolings before."

Right, because that explains everything.

Ngyes chimes in.

"In my world we share a language."

Fizz shrugs.

"We speak English in mine."

He suddenly stops and looks at ngyes.

"Wait, how do I understand you guys again?"

Before ngyes can try and answer that, interloper snaps at the two.

"Uh, guys, the octoseeker?"

"Oh, right."

The octoseeker scans the three of them.

"SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGES. FAILED OCTARIAN SUBJECTS DETECTED. INITIALIZING NEUTRALIZATION SEQUENCE."

Interloper groans.

"Ah, shit."

Fizz turns and jumps through a window nearby.

The octoseeker begins moving toward the other two, and Interloper super jumps onto a different building from the one Fizz jumped into.

"GLASS, GLASS EVERYWHERE."

Ngyes doesn't move.

"Why though?"

Fizz stands up in front of the window with glass shards poking him in several areas.

"Because I just jumped through a window, duh."

The octoseeker turns and looks at Interloper who steps back a bit.

"Uh..."

Ngyes poses heroically.

"Don't worry, I know what to do!"

The octoseeker slowly moves over to a building and drops, smashing half the building.

Fizz snorts.

"Some technology they got there, it didn't even hit the right building!"

Interloper chuckles.

"Yeah..."

Ngyes grabs a brick from the rubble, and quickly jumps onto it. He then smashes the brick into one of the propellers.

"There!"

He jumps off, rolling as he hits the ground.

The octoseeker malfunctions, and starts gliding torward interloper.

"Uh oh."

Interloper jumps off the building, and the octoseeker crashes into it.

Interloper looks over the wreckage.

"Well... Now what?"

Fizz rubs his hands together.

"WE STEAL IT!"

Interloper turns to him, slowly.

"Steal an octoseeker?"

Ngyes shrugs.

"Yeah, sure. It's more efficient then our current mode of transportation."

Ngyes goes over tosses the pilot out of the octoseeker.

Interloper nods.

"True. And less unnerving."

Ngyes quickly repairs the propeller and pushes the pilot away.

Fizz kicks him off a conveniently placed cliff nearby.

Ngyes gestures torward the cliff.

"Where did that cliff even-ah, who cares."

Fizz comes back over to the other two.

"What? You want him alerting the whole place?"

Ngyes nods.

"Good point."

"Well, I mean, his was unconscious... Wherever. Where to?"

Ngyes gets inside and shrugs.

"I dunno. Let's start by finding out where everything is."

Interloper suddenly reaches over and presses a button.

"RETURN SEQUENCE ACTIVATED."

"This should take us somewhere."

Ngyes rolls his eyes.

"Greeeeat idea, take us RIGHT to H.Q."

"Well at least we'll find out where people are! Sue me!"

Fizz looks over the panel.

"Yeah but like, there's a good chance we could die from this."

Ngyes agrees.

"You can cancel the sequence, return home just puts the thing on autopilot. You can cancel it at any time."

"So cancel it! What are you waiting for?!"

"Well, I was thinking of cancelling it when we actually find someone."

Fizz stares at him in disbelief.

"What?"

Fizz looks out the window and points.

"H.Q is right there."

Interloper turns around before turning back, gulping.

"Well then..."

He then pushes the cancel sequence button.

"There, see?"

Ngyes and Fizz share a glance.

"It didn't work."

Interloper tries pressing the button again.

Fizz sighs with great disappointment, and ngyes grabs interloper chest and shakes him.

"We're too close to the H.Q!"

"Wait, we look like octolings, right?"

Fizz lazily points at ngyes.

"He doesn't."

He shrugs.

"Put on the damn wig!"

"No! I'll be fine!"

Fizz shoves a wig onto ngyes's head, turning him into a very pissed off octoling boy.

He sighs.

Interloper nods.

"There. Octoling."

Fizz quickly takes the wig back and puts it through a portal.

"So he can't turn it off."

"Ah."

"Damn you..."

Interloper steps out of the octoseeker as it lands.

"Look, just act natrual."

"Just three normal octolings."

Interloper pushes the door open, with the other two looking behind him.

"Boss is going to kill you for unauthorized use and landing of a seeker..."

The three of them freeze, and interloper steps forward. He begins speaking to the elite in octarian.

Fizz signals to ngyes to let interloper do the talking, who nods back.

The conversation between interloper and the elite seems to get more strained, and the elite eventually grows annoyed. She reaches and relays something into her walkie talkie.

Fizz puts his hands into his shirt and reaches for the gun he has stored in there.

Interloper turns to him.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Fizz shrugs and interloper turns back around, continuing the conversation.

The elite says one more thing and turns to leave.

Ngyes runs forward.

"The jig is up!"

He slams his fist into the back of the Elite's head, knocking her down.

Fizz immediately pulls the gun out and shoots her in the back.

Interloper yelps as the bullet nearly grazes his arm.

Ngues shakes his fist off.

"That was one of my elites, they can't be reasoned with."

Fizz starts down the hall.

"We need to leave, now."

"But we still haven't found out what's happening with the city!"

Nyges and Fizz scream at him at the same time.

"Who CARES?!"

Fizz swipes his arms in front of him.

"It doesn't matter."

Ngyes grabs him by the collar.

"INFORMATION DOESN'T MATTER WHEN WE'RE DEAD!"

Interloper shoves him off.

"We're not going to die! Now, any ideas?"

Ngyes points to a kettle on the other side of the room.

"We can escape through there."

Interloper looks confused for a second before shrugging.

"Yeah, I guess we can."

He dives in, followed by Fizz, who scrambles in. Ngyes just kinda slides in.

Interloper groans.

"If ngyes's octolings are here, this is gonna be bad."

Fizz mumbles.

"I think all my octolings are in inkopolis..."

"I mean, it'd be bad if my octolings were here, but at least they'd listen to what I have to say."

"Also, I didn't kill that elite. So..."

"Uh... What?"

"Yeah, my shot couldn't have killed her."

"So she could be coming after us?"

"Yep."

Interloper takes a deep breath as the end of the kettle approaches.

"SHIIIIIIIIIT!"

The three of them fly out in sequence.

Fizz groans in pain as he grabs his leg.

"Phenomenal..."

Interloper looks around in exhaustion.

"Great, NOW where are we?"

Fizz notices scratches on a wall nearby and sighs.

"It's the complex we invaded before. Unless they all look the same."

"Ah... Some of my octolings could be here."

Ngyes groans.

"Why did I let you two talk me into this..."

"Because we didn't think THIS would happen. Any ideas?"

Fizz points down the hallway.

"We leave? Let's get the fuck out of her before someone sees us."

Ngyes agrees with a firm nod.

"Wait, we still look like octolings-"

Ngyes and Fizz both glare at him intensely.

"Alright, fine. Let's go."

The three of them start running down the hall, with Fizz lagging behind due to his leg.

Interloper turns around and notices the elite gaining on them.

"Guys, the elite's gaining on us!"

Fizz growls.

"Fuck this."

He turns and shoots a dart out of his cane, hitting elite in the side. She drops to the floor and begins convulsing wildly.

Interloper stares in disbelief.

"What'd you do?"

"Shock dart!"

Ngyes shakes his head.

"I'm even more scared of you now..."

"Not the time!"

The three of them continue running until an octoling drops down from the ceiling with a resounding "awwwwww yeah!".

"Sup."

The three of them stop until interloper stops and steps forward.

"Joanne! How goes things?"

Joanne readies a stance a stance and starts charging at interloper extremely quickly.

"Oh, right. Shades."

She slams into him and knocks him to the ground.

"Why... Ugh..."

Fizz pulls out his gun and fires it at Joanne, snapping the shades in two.

"I'm sick of this shit!"

Ngyes kicks her to the floor, causing her to groans.

"Just in case."

She faints and the others continue running.

"Heh, it's a good thing you shot her shades and knocked her out... She's a monster with a brush."

"Yeah, I was not about to deal with that."

"...Yeah she'll be fine."

They all run for a grate that'll lead them back to the square, jumping in one by one.

They exit, each of them exhausted.

Fizz tosses ngyes his wig.

"Hey, I just remembered, why didn't you use a portal, Fizz?"

"Portals don't work under extreme stress, plus I need an open moment."

"Ah. Well that was pointless."

Fizz sits down at a nearby table and swallows two pills.

Ngyes finally manages to change back and tosses the wig back to Fizz before collapsing on the ground.

"Thank fuck we're back..."

Interloper pulls out his phone and goes wide eyed.

"Oh shit! I've got 5 missed messages from kaurna! Stupid underground reception..."

Fizz also pulls out his phone and discovers 3 missed messages from Ash.

Ngyes pulls out his phone and finds nothing.

Fizz stands up and starts off.

"I'm going home. I wanna see Ash..."

"I'll bring back your wig when I finish my surprise for kaurna!"

Fizz gives a thumbs up and turns the corner.

Interloper nods.

"Well, I'd best be going. I should see how this goes."

He starts off, leaving ngyes to ponder about how worthless that entire trip was.


	4. Kaurna's aftermath

**Aftermath - Written by therandominterloper**

Knock, knock, knock!

The Octoling girl answered the door. There was a mysterious Octoling boy.

"Hm?"

"Kaurna! It's me, Interloper!"

She looked him up and down, confused.

"I turned into an Octoling!"

Kaurna didn't believe this at all.

"Inform me of a thing Interloper should be knowledgeable in."

"You combined my gaming systems into one giant mass of amazing!"

She was unconvinced.

"You could know him…"

"I also remember getting to second base after sharing that Champaign Fizz gave us?"

Kaurna's face turned a deep red.

"It's true…" He walked forward. "Your feelings for me have turned me into an Octoling!"

"W-what?!"

The male Octoling's face then turned into a big grin as he started snickering.

"Not really…I just took one of Fizz's wigs home."

He then flipped something in the wig and removed it, turning back into an Inkling.

"What?"

"It's a fancy wig he has that makes Inklings look like Octolings."

The Octoling girl's eyes then went to the wig.

"Explain every thing…Throw up the beans!"

"You mean spill the beans?"

"That too!"

She quickly pulled the Inkling inside and shut the door..


	5. The drunken party

**the drunken party - written and transcribed by therandominterloper.**

Another beautiful day in Inkopolis…

Eagle walked through a portal.

"Hmm, where's Fizz?" He wondered. "He's always here…Ah well, guess I'll sit here for a while, then."

Interloper was sitting at a table with some Inkling girl when he noticed Eagle sit down at another table.

"Oh, Hey Eagle!" He waved. "Over here!"

"Oh, hi!" Eagle waved as he walked over. "What's happening?"

"Not much..." Interloper shrugged.

"Ah…" Eagle then noticed the seemingly random Inkling girl. "Who's this?"

"Oh, her?" Interloper looked at her and chuckled slightly. "No one in particular..."

"Oh, okay." Eagle shrugged it off.

"I've been looking into that Octo Canyon stuff that happened yesterday..." He told Eagle. "I've found out some interesting things."

"Yeah, what happened?" Eagle wondered. "I heard I missed out on some crazy shit. What would that be?"

"Yeah, the city was empty and we encountered Octarians from Ngyes's universe" Interloper told him.

"Oh my," Eagle was surprised. "Are they hostile?

"Very." Interloper put it bluntly.

"Damn…" Eagle wondered what that must've been like.

"We were curious how things were on the Octarians' side, but found nothing." Interloper said. "I however, decided to pry a little deeper."

"Yeah?" Eagle was curious to hear.

"Apparently there's a power struggle going on." Interloper explained. "In the settlements are Ngyes's universe's Octarians and my universe's Octarians, and they aren't getting along. There are plenty of Fizz's Octarians in the mix too, causing disruption on both sides."

"But why aren't they getting along?" Eagle asked.

"Not sure." Interloper didn't find that out yet.

"Except for Fizz's Octarians, that is…" Eagle added since they'd be able to get along with anyone.

"Well, they've been causing a lot of disorganization," Interloper explained further. "But most of it has been suppressed"

"Understandable." Eagle nodded his head.

"Ngyes's Octarians suppressed it mostly through mind control." Interloper told him.

"Mind control, huh?" Eagle said to himself. "That's peculiar…"

"-While my universe's Octarians mostly suppressed it through hormonal medication." Interloper continued."

"Wow, mind control, hormones, and sex…" Eagle was wide-eyed. "What a mix."

"Well, making so they act more...normal, so to speak…"Interloper informed him.

"Normal?" Eagle was surprised. "As in, less sex-hungry and all?"

"It seems so." Interloper shrugged.

"And less hostile?" Eagle hoped.

"Not sure about less hostile, but yeah..." Interloper nodded his head. "Basically getting rid of distractions."

"That's interesting…" Eagle remarked.

"They're still horny as shell." Interloper assured him."

"I'll bet." Eagle chuckled.

"So my theory for why the city was empty was because it was evacuated as a war zone." Interloper guessed. "Just my theory, anyway..."

"Makes sense." Eagle supposed.

"If could be something else…" Interloper admitted.

"True." Eagle nodded.

"Not sure what that may be, though…" Interloper stroked his chin.

"Are you suggesting we take a look?" Eagle asked.

"Maybe..." Interloper nodded. "I do need to give Fizz his wig back soon though…I have a feeling he'll keep asking me about it if I don't."

"Well, he's not here, is he?" Eagle grinned.

"Nope!" The Inkling girl smiled and kissed Interloper's cheek.

"Ooo!" Eagle was surprised.

"What?" Interloper tilted his head.

"Nothing…" Eagle smirked as the Inkling girl hugged Interloper. "I think an investigation wouldn't be a bad idea…just to maybe see what's up…"

The Inkling girl and Interloper looked at each other

"Then again, depending on how much you regret last night..." Eagle didn't want to push him.

"Regret?" Interloper tilted his head. "I don't regret a thing."

"No regrets!" The Inkling girl cheered.

"Okay, just from what I heard of it last night…" Eagle said. "It sounded pretty rough…"

Suddenly, Fizz came out of nowhere and smacked interloper.

"Ow!" Interloper rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh, hey, Fizz." Eagle nonchalantly waved.

"Why?!" Interloper glared at Fizz

"You're only saying that because you're the one who got us into that bullshit!" Fizz hissed.

"I didn't know!" Interloper defended himself.

"Oh he didn't know, gotcha!" Fizz rolled his eyes.

The Inkling girl glared at him.

"Who's this girl?" Fizz wondered.

"Dunno, he wouldn't tell me." Eagle shrugged.

Inkling girl hugged Interloper tighter

'There's no way that's not Kaurna…' Fizz thought to himself.

"Oh, here's your wig by the way." Interloper reached for it.

"Wait...Interloper?" Eagle pulled him closer. "A word?"

"Yeah?" Interloper wondered what was up.

"What happened to Kaurna?" Eagle whispered. "I Thought you were with her…"

"Are you dense?" Fizz asked, crossing his arms.

"...Are your friends not realizing yet?" The Inkling girl asked.

"Uh..." Eagle still didn't get it.

"I did." Fizz answered. "I dunno what's up with him."

The girl then removed her wig and her appearance started changing, revealing Kaurna.

"Wait, what?" Eagle's eyes widened. "Woah! That was one damn good disguise!"

"Yeah, she took a look at the wig Fizz gave me." Interloper explained. "It completely changes your appearance to that of an Octoling and she reverse-engineered her own wigs."

"Damn…" Eagle sighed.

"Not sure how happy Ash is gonna be about that…" Fizz said.

"I would love to learn how Ash made the idea of these." Kaurna said. "Working on them was the fun!"

No clue." Eagle shrugged. "Maybe you should ask her."

"Yes, indeed!" Kaurna agreed.

"So yeah, here's your wig back, Fizz." Interloper said as he handed the wig over to Fizz, who took it.

"Certainly seems like you had fun." Eagle remarked.

Kaurna's eyes widened

"Those...were so the fresh!" She shouted.

"You know, we could certainly use a couple of those in our attacks…" Eagle pointed out. "That would be pretty helpful."

"Can't." Fizz shook his head. "Storyline tampering isn't a good idea."

"Hmm…too bad…" Eagle sounded disappointed.

"I would be liking to see what else she had work on!" Kaurna hoped she would.

"Alright, how about you and your boyfriend go out with me and Ash?" Fizz suggested. "You girls can rattle off about technology for however long you want."

"Okay!" Kaurna instantly agreed. "But no hit or darts."

"Again?" Eagle was shocked. "You guys did that once already."

"We can do it again." Interloper shrugged before turning to Fizz. "Actually...yeah, I agree. No darts."

"Also, last time was unintentional." Fizz told Eagle.

"Yeah, but I want to do something at least…" Eagle whined. "It's boring at home."

"Invite your girlfriend." Interloper suggested.

"Not a bad idea..." Eagle admitted, nodding his head.

"Triple date!" Fizz said. "Well, I shouldn't say date..."

"You guys okay with that?" Eagle wondered.

"Yes!" Kaurna nodded her head.

"Alright, be back in a minute, then." Eagle said as he left through a portal.

"Alrighty." Interloper leaned back.

Fizz pulled out his phone and texted Ash.

"So yeah, Kaurna had a lot of fun being an Inkling for a day." Interloper told Fizz.

"I surprise Ash as well!" Kaurna put the wig back on.

"She's gonna know it's you." Fizz told her.

A portal then spat Eagle and his girlfriend Aileen out.

"Hey!" Eagle waved.

"Hi ho!" Kaurna waved.

"Hey." Interloper waved.

"Uh..." Aileen was confused.

"It's Kaurna." Interloper told her.

"Don't tell Ash yet!" Kaurna made a 'shush' gesture.

"Yeah, something didn't seem quite right." Aileen remarked.

"Ash is gonna know it's you..." Fizz repeated to himself.

"No she won't..." Kaurna replied.

"What makes you say that?" Interloper asked.

"Well, because she's over there." Fizz pointed a short distance behind the others.

"Did she see..?" Kaurna wondered.

"Oh, so this is Ash?" Eagle asked. "Never met her before, I think…"

"Hi Ash!" The disguised Kaurna waved.

"Shit, you're not supposed to call to her!" Eagle silently shouted. "Not everybody knows her."

Ash came over and stood next to Fizz.

"Hello." Eagle waved.

"Hey." Interloper waved.

"Hey guys." Ash waved. "Who are these two?"

"Who, me and her?" Eagle asked as he pointed to Aileen

"Yeah, haven't seen you before" Ash said.

"I'm Aileen" Aileen told her.

"Do you know me?" Eagle wondered.

"We haven't met before, although fizz had told me about you" Ash told him.

"Ah, okay." Eagle sighed. "Hopefully good things..."

"Hello!" The disguised Kaurna waved.

"Kaurna!" Ash instantly recognized her.

"How you know?" Kaurna couldn't believe it.

"Well, I can tell my own wig when I see it." Ash told her. "Plus, your accent slipped through pretty hard"

"Ugh..." Kaurna took the wig off.

"Heh, oh well" Aileen shrugged. "Worth a shot"

"Yeah, she reverse-engineered the wig Fizz gave me." Interloper told her.

"Pretty smart girl." Eagle remarked.

"Did she really? Cool!" Ash took it surprisingly well. "We should talk about this stuff later"

"Eeeeeeeh!" Kaurna got excited.

"Calm down, girl." Interloper said.

"Er...right..." Kaurna rubed the back of her head.

"Let her geek out." Aileen shrugged. "Josiah lets me sometimes…"

"Sometimes?" Fizz was sure it was more than that.

"It's good for us" Eagle remarked. "Lets us release energy."

"I release energy in different ways…" Fizz grinned and ash nudged him.

"Yeah, I know that already." Eagle said.

"We know." Interloper said with a blank stare.

"You leave it open, I'm gonna take it. Fizz shrugged.

"Alright, whatever." Eagle shrugged." Who are you taking, Fizz? Ash?"

"Most likely, considering Sarah's condition…" Interloper told him.

"Mhmm…" Fizz seemed to be thinking.

"Okay then, shall we, then?" Eagle asked.

"Sure." Interloper agreed.

"Where to, though?" Eagle wondered. "Don't know if this Inkopolis has the same restaurants as we do."

"It seems to be a mish-mash of all of ours, so it may have those and more." Interloper guessed.

"I wonder if my favorite breakfast place is here..." Fizz hoped so.

Eagle looked on his phone's map.

"No maps." He said. "Nothing."

"Damn, that sucks…" Fizz sighed as he took another pill.

"Know any good places, Kaurna?" Interloper asked.

"I know some..." Kaurna was thinking.

"I know a few as well" Ash said.

"Where did you guys go two nights ago?" Eagle wondered. "When Interloper and Kaurna got wasted?"

"It was a place down in Shellside." Interloper answered. "Goldie's I think..."

"My head hurted in the morning..." Kaurna groaned.

Ash giggled.

"Yeah, one of the problems of getting drunk." Eagle shrugged.

"And that wasn't the worst part..." Interloper groaned.

"Please, no!" Kaurna begged him not to say it.

"Alright, alright..." Interloper agreed, not really wanting to relay the events.

"Yes. Yes. The topless awakening." Fizz grinned. "We know."

"Oh, he told us." Eagle told her.

Kaurna put her head in her hands.

"Dunno what you're so embarrassed about…" Fizz shrugged. "Me and Ash woke up that morning Tangled in each other.

"I'd be if I were her" Aileen agreed with Kaurna.

"Well, we aren't...there...yet...you know?" Interloper said.

Fizz shrugged.

"You should be, it's super nice" Ash said.

Please don't…" Interloper begged. "Kaurna's face is red as it is…Her face is almost as red as her hair."

"Stooooooooop!" Kaurna started slapping Interloper.

"Ow, ow, okay, I'm sorry!" Interloper apologized.

Ash then very visibly groped Fizz.

"WOAH!" Fizz wasn't expecting that.

"AAAAAH!" Kaurna wasn't either.

"Not in public! Jeez..." Fizz told Ash.

Ash laughed.

"Yes, please!" Kaurna wanted no more.

"You guys, from that universe, I fucking swear..." Aileen sighed.

"Woah, Aileen!" Eagle was surprised by her language.

"I'm not from his universe" Ash told her.

"Yeah, I checked." Fizz confirmed.

"Huh, I could've sworn from that grope" Aileen remarked.

"Nah, she's just a tease" Fizz said.

"Okay, then" Aileen replied.

"Goodness, Aileen, you worked up or something?" Eagle wondered.

"Stop handing me jokes." Fizz rolled his eyes. "You're bringing this on yourself."

"I'm not trying to." Eagle told him. "She just never curses."

"So are we going to be eating?" Kaurna wondered.

"I hope so, I'm starving." Eagle groaned. "For food, Fizz, before you try anything-"

Fizz open his mouth to speak but Ash did first.

"Starving for seeeex?" Ash grinned.

"I'm certain he said food" Aileen corrected her.

"AAAAAH!" Kaurna started lightly slapping Ash

Fizz high-fived Ash.

"You are technical genius, but your mind is in gutter!" Kaurna shouted.

"Well said!" Aileen agreed.

"It's a standard when living with Fizz" Ash shrugged it off.

"I can tell…" Eagle rolled his eyes.

"We should get food now, I'm hungry" Aileen groaned.

"Same..." Kaurna agreed.

"Let's go then, to the food!" Eagle pointed in a random direction. "You should lead, I don't know where it is."

"Goldie's?" Interloper tilted his head. "That shit's expensive."

"Oh, it is?" Eagle was surprised.

"Yeah, I spent half my pocket money at that place." Fizz told him.

"And you need to call for a reservation." Interloper added.

"Okay, then…Somewhere else..." Eagle shrugged.

"Ash eats WAY too much." Fizz groaned.

Ash nervously giggled.

"So where we go?" Kaurna wondered.

"Maybe a buffet then, to curb Ash's hunger?" Eagle suggested.

"I could go for that about now" Aileen agreed.

"Sounds good to me." Interloper nodded his head,

"YES, LET'S GO. NOW." Ash's stomach was audibly growling.

"Oh, look what you've done." Fizz crossed his arms.

"Hey, if it's all-you-can-eat, than it's a one-price thing." Eagle shrugged. "Pay once, you get all the food you can fucking devour."

Ash was drooling.

"...Ash is being weird..." Kaurna was starting to feel uneasy.

"She's just hungry." Eagle told her.

"I too, but..." Kaurna looked over at the starving beast.

"She's always hungry." Fizz told her. "She's lucky I can just poof more food up."

"What's going on?" Ngyess appeared out of nowhere.

"Food, eventually…" Eagle told him

"Cool." Ngyes Said.

"Where the hell did you come from?" Fizz was confused.

"I just walk here, like a normal person?" Ngyes shrugged. "I don't have portals, or shit like you guys."

"So where is Buffet, Eagle?" Kaurna asked.

"Yes, where, I need, right now!" Ash was getting impatient.

"Well, I have one back in my Inkopolis." Eagle wasn't sure if it was here.

"Try putting it on the map here." Interloper suggested.

"Okay..." Eagle started looking at his phone and pointed in the direction. "Not too far from here."

"Cool." Ngyes said.

"Let us go, then!" Kaurna shouted.

"Only question is if it's here or not…" Eagle remarked. "If not, we'll figure out something."

"Ash is already gone…" Fizz noticed. "Well, I'm going after her…"

The party of Cephalopods followed in the direction Ash ran off in.

"Fuckin leg..." Fizz groaned.

"Ah, causing you trouble?" Eagle asked.

"It's causing a lot of trouble, yes." Fizz answered.

"His leg is still in pain?" Kaurna was surprised.

"Uh, yeah, guess so" Aileen shrugged.

"You added onto an already existing injury." Fizz told her, still unhappy about it. "So thanks…"

"I apologized already." Kaurna reminded him.

"Should feel at least a little better by now..." Ngyes remarked. "Especially with all those meds you take…"

"Well, what do ya know?" Interloper pointed at a sign. "It's actually here."

The group entered the restaurant to find Ash already stuffing her face at a table.

"Wow, Ash…" Eagle was surprised. "That's pretty quick…"

"Geez, save some for the rest of us…" Interloper said.

"Yeah." Ngyes agreed.

Ash hissed at them like a wild animal.

"See what I have to deal with?" Fizz asked them.

"Quite the girl you got there." Ngyes said.

"But hey, if she eats food this well..." Eagle nudged Fizz. "Eh?"

Ngyes facepalmed.

"…Nice one." Fizz admitted.

"Really, Josiah? Your innuendos need work" Aileen told him.

"Always been one to give me the harsh truth, Aileen..." Eagle sighed.

They all grabbed platefuls of food, except for Kaurna, who only had half a plate and Fizz, who just pulled food out of nowhere.

Shortly after…

Fizz raised a cup of soda

"Damn, the pizza here is good." Ngyes remarked.

"Yeah!" Eagle couldn't agree more.

"Raise a glass to the four of us, am I right?" Fizz said.

"Cheers!" Interloper raised his glass.

"Yeah." Ngyes raised his glass

"Uh, hell yeah!" Eagle raised his glass.

"Did... Ash eat her cup?" Ngyes asked.

"Wait, four of us?" Eagle was confused.

"Four guys, it's the first time we've been together in a bit." Fizz explained.

Ngyes raised all three cups in one hand.

"Wow, dude." Eagle was caught off-guard by that. "I think one cup's enough…"

"I like orange soda, ok?" Ngyes defended himself.

They all sat with their respective girlfriends, except for Ngyes, who was single and fine with that.

"Ah, this is nice…" Eagle sighed in relief. "Haven't enjoyed myself on this level in quite a while…"

Interloper looked at his full plate compared to Kaurna's, which was half empty.

"It's a buffet you know, Kaurna." He told her, urging her to splurge a little.

"A full Octoling is a slow Octoling" Kaurna replied, some of her back-home mentality remaining.

"Ash, you're gonna eat the place out." Fizz sighed as Ash continued to eat like a whale.

"Shut up! This food is AMAZING!" She spat.

Kaurna leaned towards Interloper.

"That is not all she is eating out…" She joked.

"Heh...good one..." Interloper chuckled.

"Oh, hey, Kaurna's getting in on it!" Eagle shouted.

"...I am not!" Kaurna shouted, not knowing someone else heard her.

"I'd make a joke myself, but it's beneath me…" Interloper shrugged.

"Yes, please do not." Kaurna agreed.

"That's Fizz's realm." Eagle remarked.

"No, it isn't." Fizz narrowed his eyes at them.

Ngyes chuckled.

"If kaurna made one, you can make one." Fizz rolled his eyes.

"I did not!" Kaurna tried saving face.

"You did whether you meant to or not." Eagle said.

Kaurna put her head in her hands again.

Eagle then went to get a lemon pop.

"Want Ice cream?" Interloper asked Kaurna as Ngyes was getting a small bowl of pudding

"Buffet pudding's the best." Ngyes stated.

"I have not had the ice cream yet" Kaurna told him

"Try it." Interloper urged her.

"You're missing out." Ngyes told her. "Ice cream's the bomb!"

"I'll get ya a cone." Interloper got up to get some ice cream.

"I'll get one, too." Ngyess got up to get some too before returning very quickly. "Ugh, they never have the good flavors..."

"Anyone want a beer?" Fizz randomly asked. "Or... Any alcohol at all?"

"Alchohol?" Ngyes tilted his head.

"I don't drink." Interloper claimed as he returned with the cones. "Often..."

He then handed Kaurna the ice cream and she devoured it after a small taste.

"I'm not at the legal age yet, and neither is Aileen." Eagle stated. "Ya gotta be 21 where we come from."

"Same." Ngyes said.

"Suit yourselves." Fizz shrugged.

"I'll have sip" Kaurna raised her hand

"Besides, it's a buffet, can the beer here be any good?" Eagle brought up a good question.

"This is my beer." Fizz said as he tossed Kaurna a bottle.

"...Eh...had better..." Kaurna shrugged after a taste.

"Meh...I may try a little…" Eagle gave in. "Is it any good?"

"It's good enough." Fizz replied.

"Hell, why not." Eagle shrugged. "Guess I'll take some."

Fizz tossed Eagle a bottle and he caught it with ease. He then took a sip.

They then noticed Ash had stopped eating.

"You happy, Ash?" Interloper asked.

"Yesssss..." Ash replied with a smile.

"The hell?!" Eagle shouted, wide-eyed. "This drink is fire! Where has this been my entire life?!"

"Yep,that's alcohol for you." Fizz said.

"Oh no…" Ngyes could tell this meant trouble.

"Just...regulate yourself?" Aileen suggested.

Eagle didn't answer, but he did take another drink.

"I have had better..." Kaurna said. "Back home..."

"Hey, kaurna!" Fizz got her attention and tossed a bottle. "Is that what you're looking for?

"...No, but close second!" Kaurna grinned and downed it.

"Oh, shit!" Ngyes wasn't expecting that.

"Ha!" Kaurna sighed In relief.

"She already did…" Interloper noticed.

"Holy shit, Kaurna, you're gonna be wasted as fuck tomorrow…" Eagle said before looking at his bottle and taking another drink.

"Yeah, apparently 'Drinking responsibly' for Kaurna means she only gets wasted once in a blue moon…" Interloper told him.

Ash grabbed a bottle as well.

"Wow, you guys have some hella dynamite girlfriends." Ngyes wasn't wrong. "Like, the fuck?"

"She's not my girlfriend." Fizz stated as Eagle finished his bottle.

"Suure…" Ngyes rolled his eyes.

"Whoo!" Eagle shouted as Fizz fell backwards in his chair.

"That was good! I need more!" Eagle was getting excited.

"Another!" Kaurna got excited too.

"Oh boy..." Ngyes was preparing for the worst.

Fizz tossed them bottles as soon as he was able to.

"Drinks all around!" Eagle cheered as Kaurna downed another bottle.

"My Cod, Kaurna…" Interloper leaned back.

"I'll stick to soda." Ngyes wisely decided.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine, too" Aileen agreed with that decision.

"Eh, suit yourself, Aileen." Eagle shrugged and downed some more.

"Interloper, you should have some!" Fizz

"Haaaa...yess...share some..." Kaurna urged, a little tipsy now.

I-I told you, I don't..." Interloper was then caught by Kaurna's sad eyes and whimpers

"Please don't give me that look..." Interloper begged.

"I think she wants you to, Interloper." Eagle said.

"Mmmm...Alright!" Interloper gave in. "Just one though..."

"Ha! I knew it!" Eagle laughed. "You can't turn her down!"

"I know…" Interloper gave a defeated sigh.

Eagle got up for some more food.

Ngyes sighed, wondering if he'd be the butt of this mess.

Fizz then lazily tossed a bottle to interloper, who caught it.

"Ugh...bitter..." Interloper got reminded of one reason he didn't drink.

"I'll buy you some Octarian Ale..." Kaurna told him. "That's is the good stuffing!"

Eagle flopped down into chair, nearly falling over.

Fizz then threw ngyes his favorite soda

"I don't trust you." Ngyes narrowed his eyes.

"Itzzz not beer, I promise…" Fizz may or may not have been telling the truth.

"Yeah... no." Ngyes got a fresh can.

"Have some moooooore…" Kaurna urged Interloper, holding a bottle close to him.

"I said just a little..." Interloepr told her.

"Yeaaaahhhh~" Eagle urged him.

"Damn, you guys are REALLY wasted." Ngyes said.

"I'm not." Interloper stated.

"Yo, guys, we should go before we all get too tipsy." Fizz retained some sense. "I'm not gonna be able to walk if a drink much more."

"Heh, yeah, we probably should." Eagle agreed.

"Oh, Josiah…" Aileen shook her head.

"Yeah, let's go, Kaurna..."

"Okaaaaaayyy..." She got up with him.

"Oh, I needed this so~ bad." Eagle hiccupped as he stumbled to the register to pay.

"Me as well..." Kaurna agreed.

"I'm so gonna regret this in the morning..." Eagle said. "But it was worth it~"

Ngyes, amidst the burping and hiccupping, got out bottles of charcoal.

"Drink this guys, before you die." He urged them. "Charcoal absorbs the alcohol in your stomach."

"Nah, I'm gooooood." Eagle told him.

"I'm not drinking charcoal..." Fizz stated.

"You'll regret it if you don't." Ngyes urged them.

"I'll just get Kaurna home..." Interloper sighed as he took Kaurna outside.

Ash leaned on Fizz, wasted as fuck as the group stumbled out of the buffet.

"Oh, damn, Fizz…" Eagle was impressed. "You know how to put it away…Heh…" *Hiccup*

"Well, I should be taking this drunk-ass fuck home" Aileen sighed.

"Woooah!" Fizz was caught off-guard by the swearing.

"Heheh, you're the fuck, Aileen…" Eagle chuckled.

"And you two are Going to fuck at this rate." Fizz added.

"Maybe we should~" Eagle tried to kiss Aileen, but got pushed away. "Nu-uh, not at least 'till you're sober, Josiah."

"Aww~" Eagle whined.

"Well, I have to get Kaurna home..." Interloper said. "She's absolutely wasted now..."

"I am nooooot…" Kaurna lied before kissing him.

"I am sufficiently wasted." Fizz stated. "Time to go home and have sex with Ash probably...I don't see this ending any other way for me."

"Man, I wish I had it good like that." Eagle said. "Maybe I can find one of your Octolings, Fizz…Heh, heh…" *Hic*

"Wow, you really are wasted…" Fizz remarked.

"Aren't you with your girlfriend?"Interloper asked.

"Wh-oh, yeah…" Eagle realized.

"Yesh, cheetah!" Kaurna narrowed her eyes.

"This outta be good…" Fizz rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Josiah, let's go" Aileen decided not to make a scene.

"Byeeeeee" Kaurna waved.

"Damn, I was hoping for a slap." Fizz was disappointed.

"Nah, I know he's drunk" Aileen told them. "I'm only letting him off since he's drunk, Fizz"

"I cannnn provide..." Kaurna chuckled as she lazily raised a hand at Fizz.

"If you hit me Kaurna, I swear..." Fizz tightened his grip on the cane.

"She won't." Interloper assured him. "She's just wasted."

"We're all wasted~!" Fizz cheered.

"I'm not." Interloper corrected him. "I barely drank.

"Cause you're boring." Fizz rolled his eyes.

"Cuz yer no ffffun..." Kaurna groaned.

"I'm fun!" Interloper stated. "I have reasons for not drinking!"

"Eyyyy!" Fizz finger-gunned at Kaurna, having actually agreed on something.

"Yeah, man, gotta lighten up a bit…" Eagle told Interloper.

Kaurna noticed the finger gun and flinched.

"What'd I dooo?" Fizz was confused.

"It's not the dart gun, Kaurna." Interloper assured her.

"Oh…" Kaurna realized it.

Ngyes sighed.

"Josiah" Aileen tugged Eagle's arm.

"Okaaaayyyy, finnnneeeeee…" Eagle groaned. "See ya guys later~"

Aileen dragged Eagle through the portal.

"Byeeeeee!" Kaurna waved.

"I'm just gonna..." Ngyes opened a bottle of charcoal and put it in Kaurna's mouth, but she spat it out.

Fizz then shot Ngyes with his cane.

"Fuck!" Ngyes felt that. "Why?"

"You're ruining our fuuuun!" Fizz told him.

"You zoved coal in ma mouf..." Kaurna whined. "It wuz baaaad..."

"Maaaaybe you should've taken it?" Interloper suggested.

"No!" Kaurna huffed.

The dart then took effect and Ngyes fainted.

"Nighty-night, Ness..." Kaurna lazily waved.

'Well, I'm gonna take Kaurna home..." Interloper sighed. "You two...you know..."

He then walked away with Kaurna in-tow., leaving Fizz and Ash to stumble toward their place, but not without shooting Ngyes with a sugar dart on their way out.

Ngyes then woke up suddenly

"F-fuck you!" Ngyes pulled the dart out of his arm and got up, only to realize everyone was gone.

He sighed.

"God…what did Fizz do to meeeEEE!" He then felt an intense sugar rush. "WHYYYY?!"


	6. The wasted eagle

**Author's Note: **Oh, boy. It's this chapter.

This is more or less the aftermath of Eagle getting drunk, hence the name "Wasted Eagle." It has a few canon elements, being that he's drunk, but other than that, it's all of the head, baby. I would like to (sarcastically) thank Fizz for asking me to do this. This probably was the biggest block I've ever come to since writing this year, and that's saying something. So, uh, thanks for that? But once I got an idea in my head, it spilled out pretty nicely, I can say that. Okay, that was a lie, this was very hard to write. But hey, it was fun!

Anyways, enjoy. I will warn you, it's slightly explicit. Nothing too much, just some foul language and a couple sexual references beyond some other stuff I wrote, but it is still T.

Oh, and keep giving Fizz some of that wonderful support, whydontcha? And maybe check my story out, too?

**~The Wasted Eagle~**

A rustling could be heard in the bushes in Josiah's backyard. After a loud "whoosh," out stumbled Aileen, who was half-dragging a drunk Josiah. He was slightly walking, but Aileen was doing most of the work. She managed to somehow get him through his back door and laid him by the couch. With him down, she stretched her back and walked into the kitchen. She filled a cup with water and walked back over to Josiah, dumping it on his face.

"Ack!" he sputtered. "The hell was that for?" He stood up and wiped the water off his face.

"For ignoring me! I warned you against getting drunk, and then you turn around and do exactly what I told you to not do!"

Josiah walked, or rather, staggered into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of pop out of the fridge.

"Stupid drinking laws," he said. "Guess I'll have to settle with a Tentacola for now." He popped it open and downed the bottle.

"See? That's my point, Josiah. If that were a beer, you would'a chugged it, just like the others. You have to stay away from that shit, it's not good for you."

"That's what you think." He let out a large belch, causing Aileen to wrinkle her nose.

"I swear, Josiah, you can be extremely difficult sometimes."

"Uh, yeah, everybody can."

"That's not my point. You are especially difficult, another level of difficult. This is one of those times. Were I not as patient as I am…"

"What? You'd slap me? Beat me? That's not like you at all. Anyways, I'm gonna go watch TV. You can join me if you want." He staggered into the living room, slumping down in the chair.

"Josiah, stop ignoring me. You need to recognize that you screwed up."

"Uh, you call getting drunk 'screwing up?'"

"Yes."

"Well, I don't. I'm fine, nothing bad is happening."

Aileen broke down at this. "Nothing bad? NOTHING BAD? You're blind then, because you're not doing good things for our relationship." She slowly began approaching Josiah. "You being drunk isn't only annoying as hell. I had to drag your damn body here, since you wouldn't come yourself. But on the way, guess what? You said that basically, if I didn't let you fuck me, you'd find a different person to fuck." Josiah flinched, as Aileen never, _never _used that kind of language. "And it wasn't that bad. It was one of Fizz's Octolings. A FUCKING SEX ADDICT! There would be no way you wouldn't get it! And the worst part? I WAS RIGHT THERE. I heard it all, you had no shame in saying it." She slapped him in the face, hard.

"That's for ignoring me!"

Slap.

"That's for accepting the drink in the first place!"

Slap.

"That's for letting me drag you home!"

Punch.

"And that is for suggesting you dump me for a sex addict!"

Defeated, she slumped down on the floor, tears streaming down her face. Josiah rubbed his face and then turned towards her. He didn't notice, but that final punch had caused him to shift back to his basic color, black. He was born that way, where by default, he had black tentacle hair. He had to focus slightly to keep them green, and that blow had managed to distract him.

"Aileen?" No response, just some choked sobs. "Aileen, I'm...I'm sorry. I made a mistake, I should've listened to you. I should've never even accepted the drink. All this is my fault, I'm really sorry. Please, forgive me."

Aileen looked up at him, eyes red and puffy, still sobbing. "I-I forgive you. J-just, please, _please _listen to me next time, okay?"

"Okay." Josiah smiled.

"So...what now?"

"I think you know what I'm gonna suggest." Josiah smiled provocatively.

"Yeah, no. We need to do something else."

"Okay, fine."

"First, your tentacles are black now."

"Huh?" He scrunched up his face, changing them back to lime green.

"That's better. Second, we could watch some TV."

"Hmm...not a bad idea." Josiah scooted to the couch and made room for her to lay beside him. "Wanna sit?" he asked, patting the space he had made.

"Oh, do I?" Aileen hopped onto the couch, and actually cuddled with Josiah, despite her protests for more sexual activities.

Both were asleep, the TV still on. Aileen awoke after maybe two or three hours of sleep and got up to stretch. She looked down at Josiah's sleeping body.

"Ah, Josiah," she said. "You screwed up big time, but it looks like all's well again." She sighed and thought she should get him to his bed one way or another. After accidentally dropping him on the floor, he didn't stir, so she knew that she would be fine simply dragging him. Her trip up the stairs was harder than expected, but since she worked for the army for two years, she was used to physical strain.

She managed to somehow get him in his bed. Looking down at him again, she smiled, realizing that although he would have a terrible hangover, he would be all right when he woke up.

"Goodnight," she whispered, and then left the room.


	7. Ngyes's interlude

**A new writer appears, making for a grand total of four! This interlude was written by NgyesPress. **

On a dark, clear night in Inkopolis...

Ngyes runs into his apartment, and slams the door behind him.

"God." He said to himself. "This shared universe is going to be the end of me."

On the same night, him, and all his friends went out to a buffet. Seems normal, right?

Well, it somehow ended up with half the group getting extremely drunk, and a tranq dart in his arm, then another dart, which gave him a crazy sugar rush, all courtesy of Fizz.

Before that, they went into an Octarian H.Q, were turned into Octolings, and nearly exterminated.

And before THAT, he got shot in the forehead with a gun, and spent the afternoon as a squid ghost, trapped in a jar, with Fizz carrying him.

FOR THE SECOND TIME.

He never asked for this place to exist, and has no idea how it happened.

It just happened one day...

About 2 weeks ago...

Ngyes got out of bed, got dressed, and headed to the Square.

When he arrived, he noticed...

"An Octoling?"

"AN OCTOLING!"

Ngyes instinctively charged at her, and punched her to the ground.

A crowd began forming around him.

"HEY?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" the Octoling yelled. She kicked Ngyes to the ground, and ran away.

"Why would you do that?" Said a member of the crowd. "Asshole." Said another.

"B-but..." Ngyes said, unsure of himself. "Octos are evil!"

"Maybe a year ago." Said the Octoling.

"Get your damn head out of whatever alternate world it's in, dick."

And that's right where she kicked him.


	8. Road trip!

**Road Trip! - Part 1 transcribed and written by eaglebyte.**

The Square was bustling. The air was warmer than normal for a February day, meaning there were more Oceanics out and about than normal.

At a table sat Fizz, Ash, Interloper, and Ngyes.

"Ha!" Interloper said happily. "A warm day! Finally!"

"Is it just me, or do things seem...cleaner?" Ash looked around.

"What do you mean?" asked Interloper.

"There's less clutter, almost as if this place were moved somewhere else."

"Well, perhaps it was."

"The magical properties of this place never cease to amaze me," Fizz said. That was saying something, considering he was, well, magical.

"How your world works in general confuses me."

"My world makes sense...sort of."

"Yeah," butted in Ngyes. "Like how you guys speak English?"

"I was just about to say," returned Interloper. "We speak Inklish in mine."

"Yeah," began Fizz. "Apparently the first Inklings on the land found some old books, sharing the knowledge with the Octarians. Then, boom."

"Great Turf War!" said Interloper. When the other three looked at him with queer expressions, he said "never mind, just joking. So, what's on the agenda today?"

"I...don't know," said Ngyes, who scratched his head.

"Fizz?" Interloper looked over at him.

"Psh, I dunno," he said. "Road trip, maybe?"

"Yeah!" Interloper happily agreed. "Road trip!"

"Uhh, sure…" Ngyes did not know if he wanted that plan.

"It'd be interesting to see what else is out there," Fizz defended his idea.

"To where?"

"Out in the countryside!" Interloper said enthusiastically. "The sun guiding us! I'm down for that!"

"Geez, you really like road trips," Fizz said, slightly regretting the plan.

Ngyes bent down and grabbed a bag on the ground. He set it on the table and opened it, revealing hundreds of bags of chips.

"Niiiiice!" Fizz exclaimed.

"I've been preparing," responded a proud Ngyes, who returned the bag to its resting place at his feet.

"I haven't been on a road trip in a while, so...guess I'll drive!" Interloper called out.

"Well, who are we bringing?" Fizz asked.

"Kaurna, of course."

"Obviously Ash, too."

"I'm sure Eagle will teleport in randomly, so…"

"I'm sure he'd bring Aileen."

"We'd need a limo for that many people for sure," Ngyes said, pulling out his phone. "Because I'd totally rent a limo."

"Nah, we'll get a van," Interloper said, nixing that idea.

"Oh, okay," Ngyes said, disappointed.

"Get a trailer with four beds," Fizz suggested. "Unless you and Kaurna are too embarrassed to sleep together," he added, looking at Interloper.

"I mean, we never did it before, so I'm not sure how she is. She is, however, feeling much better now, so she'll totally be down for a road trip."

(Bit of an author's note here. Interloper is referring to something that happened between Kaurna and Ash in our RP room that would push this over into an M rating. Let's just say that Kaurna had to process quite a bit for a day afterwards, shall we? Now back to the story.)

"Perfect!" Fizz replied. "Let's go get ourselves a van!"

"But if it's a trailer, won't we need to hook it up to a truck?"

"Probably, yeah."

"Hmmm…"

"We could rent an RV," suggested Ngyes.

"That works," agreed Interloper. "And we would either bring tents or check into hotels."

"Hotel, I'll buy," offered Fizz, who had much, much more money than he needed.

"But it depends on where we're going. Hmm…"

"There's a town from my universe not too far from here, we could see if it exists."

"Possibly," said Interloper, followed by "probably," from Ngyes.

"Though, I will pack tents," Interloper said. "Heck, it'd probably be a camping trip then."

"Sounds good," Fizz said in support of the plan. He stood up, grabbing his cane. "Let's go get that RV, then."

Interloper stood up as well. "Yeah! Road trip!"

Ngyes headed over to the pay phone in the middle of the square, looking at the ads posted there. Interloper pulled out his phone and began to text Kaurna, while Fizz called Ash.

"Just make sure it has four beds!" Fizz shouted at Ngyes while the phone was ringing. "I don't want to share a bed with you!"

Interloper chuckled. "Yeah, don't want that."

"Well, this one's got a queen bed, a hide-a-bed, and two bunk beds." Ngyes had a sheet of paper listing some rental options.

Suddenly, Fizz's eyes went wide and he held his phone away from his ear.

"Is that a yes?" Interloper asked, trying not to laugh.

"Uh, yeah, she screamed and then hung up. Seems really excited."

"Who gets the queen bed?" Ngyes asked.

"Well, I'm driving, so...dibs!" Interloper smiled.

"Ngyes gets the couch-bed for sure," said Fizz.

"Alright," he replied.

"Fine, who's paying for the rental?"

"I will."

"Uh, I can help, since I'm driving," Interloper interjected.

"If you insist. I've got more money than I know what to do with."

"I know that feeling," Fizz said.

"Money's never been a concern with me," Interloper said as well. He checked his phone. "Yeah, Kaurna's pretty pumped to come, too."

"Cool!" Ngyes exclaimed. "Glad everybody's on board."

"Uh, Eagle hasn't confirmed yet," Fizz reminded Ngyes. "And we're not sure if he's bringing Aileen, too."

"Here, let me text him," Interloper said, pulling his phone out again. A couple seconds later, the phone buzzed. "Yep, they're both coming."

"Is he on his way?"

"Nah, he's currently eating and then he's gonna watch a movie with Aileen, so it won't be for a while."

"Perfect! Let's pack, then!"

The three of them split up, saying they'd meet in four hours.

Interloper and Fizz were sitting there in the Square. They were browsing their phones, bored, as Josiah was late. Ngyes was nowhere to be seen, but they knew he would show up eventually.

Suddenly, a distant snap was heard, and a portal opened before them. Out flew two bags, followed by Josiah and Aileen. Aileen was wearing some sunglasses despite the fact that it wasn't that bright outside.

"Hey, Eagle!" Interloper said upon first sight.

"Oh, hey," he replied.

"Or should I say...Josiah? Since that's what Aileen calls you?"

"Either one's fine, Josiah's simply my real name."

"Ah."

"Hey, Aileen!" Interloper attempted to spark a bit of a conversation.

"H-hey, hi," Aileen said nervously.

"Oh, come on, Aileen. Give me those damn glasses already."

"But-"

"They won't freak, I know them very well."

"But, I don't-"

Josiah reached over, snatching them off of her head. She squealed and covered her face with her hands, but not before Interloper caught a slight glance.

"Uh, Eagle?"

"What?"

"What happened?"

Aileen peeked through her fingers, and they could see a pink glow coming from behind them.

"If Aileen would show everybody else, I'll tell you."

"Aileen?" Fizz said, looking at her shotty job of covering her face.

"F-fine." The hands came off, revealing her face. Over her right eye was a vertical scar going from her forehead down to her chin. Her left eye had a similar look, but it was horizontal instead. And the main attraction were the eyes themselves: where they should've been white, they were black, and the iris was glowing pink to match her tentacle hair.

"Seriously, what happened?" Interloper leaned forward in his chair to get a better look.

"So, we were in a battle with some Octarians in our universe. To make the ink more effective so we would use less, we added a zapfish on each tank, so it would send electricity through the ink. Unfortunately, Aileen's gun backfired, the electricity burning her eyes. They were then replaced with these bad boys."

"Interesting," said Fizz. "They look good, though."

"Thanks," Aileen said, blushing. "I don't need those glasses anymore, so that's a plus."

"So, where are we going on this road trip?" Josiah asked.

"It's a town Fizz thinks might be in a certain area. If it isn't, I've got tents."

"Well, regardless, I haven't left the city in two years, so this will be nice."

"And, it's a camping trip."

"Should make me nostalgic, I remember camping with my dad as a kid."

"Kaurna's almost finished packing, and I'm already done, so we should be leaving soon."

As he finishes his statement, Ash runs up, dragging not one, not two, but four suitcases.

"Holy shit, Ash," Josiah exclaimed. "You realize this is a camping trip, right? We're not moving."

"That's a lot of suitcases," Interloper agreed. "You want some help?"

"Nah, I got it!" she replied cheerfully.

"I can always...you know...levitate them."

"It's fine, I insist!"

"Okay then. I'm gonna go get Kaurna." He ran off.

Meanwhile, Fizz took a look at the suitcases, searching through each one. When he got to the final one, his eyes went wide.

"What in the world…" he exclaimed.

"What is it, Fizz?"

He kept staring blankly into the suitcase.

"She packed…an entire bed setup...in one of these."

"How?" Josiah took a look. "What- how the hell?"

"I just...I don't even…"

"There's no way that would possibly fit in there," Aileen said when she saw it.

"There's no need, even," said Josiah.

"I wanted to make sure I was prepared!" Ash defended. "And it can even fit in a tent!"

At that moment, Interloper and Kaurna reappear.

"I'm back!" he exclaimed. "Or should I say...we're back!"

"Hi ho!" Kaurna said, waving.

"Hey!" Aileen said, and Kaurna gasped.

"Your eyes! Your face! Does it hurt?"

"No, not anymore."

"Good."

"Wonder if Ngyes will show up?" Josiah wondered aloud.

"Eventually he will," replied Interloper.

"I can't even comprehend...this suitcase. _How did this happen?_" Fizz was still apparently in shock.

"Really, Fizz?" Interoper asked. "_That's _the most surprising thing you've seen?"

"Probably not, but still," said Josiah.

"Look," Fizz stated. "I've seen a lot of shit, but an entire bed setup in one suitcase is a first."

"Well," Josiah said, proudly displaying a 65-liter hiking pack. "Aileen and I have everything in our packs."

"So, I guess that's everything, then," Interloper stated.

"I always forget something," began Josiah. "But I think I actually have everything for once."

"Just double check."

Josiah opened his bag and ran through everything.

"I got punished severely when I did not double check back home," said Kaurna.

"I know I have everything," Ash claimed. "I checked exactly 27 times."

"I remember once I forgot my tent," Josiah remembered. "Left it on my bed. Had to use a cheapo doner tent that leaked like crazy."

"Stupidest thing you forgot, huh, Josiah?" Aileen smirked.

"Heh, yeah."

"I brought tents," Interloper said.

"Oh, we brought one, too. Aileen and I will share." Josiah looked at her with a provocative look on his face.

"Oh, cod, Josiah," Aileen said.

"Our tent is soundproofed," Fizz said proudly.

"Of course it is, Fizz," Interloper said annoyed.

"Wow, I didn't know those existed," replied Josiah.

"Would you rather it not be?" Fizz asked.

"No!" Josiah quickly responded. "I'm fine with it being soundproofed."

"We do _not _want to hear that," Aileen agreed.

"Same here," Kaurna said.

"You guys are no fun," pouted Ash.

Josiah finished checking his bag. "Yep, for once, I actually _do _have everything." He zipped it up and put it on with a grunt.

"I also packed extra sleeping bags," Interloper said.

"Ah, that's helpful," Josiah replied.

"But hopefully there is a hotel…"

"Meh, I don't care regardless. I used to go camping every month believe it or not, so it's a normal experience."

"Well, if there's a hotel, there's potentially a pool."

"Good point."

"And it has an HVAC system, unlike a tent."

"Oh, on the note of a pool, I forgot my swimsuit! Be right back!" Josiah snapped his fingers, opening another portal, and he jumped through.

"Fucking…"

"My sergeant would give you three lashes," Kaurna remarked, eyes narrowing.

"Oh, cod."

Josiah ran back through the portal, a pair of shorts in his hands. "Got it!" he said, stuffing it in the top of his pack.

"Well, I think that's it," Aileen said.

"You ready, Fizz?" Interloper looked over at him.

"Yeah," he replied. "Just...lemme...put the magical suitcases in." He began loading up the RV, which was conveniently parked on a road right by the Square.

Suddenly, Ngyes appeared out of thin air. "I'm back!"

"Hey!" Interloper said.

"Oh, just in time, Ngyes," Josiah exclaimed. "Well, then, LET'S GO!"

Everybody loaded up, Interloper sitting in the driver's seat and Kaurna sitting shotgun. Josiah and Aileen sat at the table, and Ash instantly ran and jumped into the top bunk of the bunk bed.

"Daamn, this place is big," Ngyes said happily.

"Yea, you got a good one," replied Josiah, looking around. "Interloper, do you have a license to drive something this big?"

"I have a license," he replied, followed by Kaurna saying "as do I."

"Okay, good, just wondering if you needed something special for this big of a vehicle."

"Well, you don't need a CDL for an RV. I think…we'll be fine."

"Does everyone have everything?" Fizz was standing by the door.

"Yep, everything's here," Josiah answered.

"I triple check!" Kaurna said.

"Why?" Aileen asked. "Isn't one or two enough?"

"I. Triple. Check."

"Okay then."

"Nobody comments on the fact that I checked 27 times," Ash said.

"Wait, 27?" Josiah looked at her, eyes wide. "Why 27?"

Ngyes proceeded to dump out his bag of snacks on the table. "Help yourselves," he said.

"Ooh, snacks!" Josiah grabbed a bag.

Fizz limped over and grabbed five. "She's very precise," he said, answering Josiah's question.

"Kaurna, could you get me some?" Interloper asked from the front seat. He was looking through the manual, trying to learn a little about the vehicle he was about to drive.

"Yes!" Kaurna jumped out of the chair and grabbed a couple of snacks. She then mentioned to a cooler she had. "You want drink? I have cooler!"

"That would be nice," Josiah said, munching on some chips.

Kaurna proceeded to open the cooler.

"This place has a fridge you know," Ngyes said matter-of-factly.

"Oooh!" She began stuffing the drinks into the fridge.

"Good idea," Josiah said. "Now we won't need to worry about ice."

"We'll still get some," Interloper said.

"Haven't left the city in so long, this will be nice." Aileen leaned back in the seat and sighed in relaxation. "Good to get away from the troubles of war, especially now that I'm a marked octopus with these fucking eyes."

"Guess we all overpacked," Ngyes said, looking at the four suitcases Ash had.

"Not I!" Josiah patted his bag, which was sitting beside him. "Aileen and I packed as much as necessary, no more. Being a Squid Scout taught you things like that."

Interloper started the RV.

"You were a Scout?" Ngyes asked.

"Yeah, I was."

"Cool!" He threw himself on the couch.

"Everybody buckle up!" Interloper called from the front of the RV.

Fizz attached his cane to a hook by the door and leaned against the wall, ignoring his instructions. Aileen, Josiah, and Ngyes, on the other hand, were responsible and buckled their seatbelts.

"Everybody buckled?"

"Yep!"

"Yes!"

"Uhuh!"

"No, but go anyways," Fizz said from his spot.

"Fizz. Buckle in." Interloper warned.

"I see no problem with this."

"Fizz, you're gonna die or something," Josiah said. Fizz responded by reaching for his cane.

"Yeah," Aileen added. "I don't think he's leaving until you're buckled in."

"Yeh, I'm not going until everybody's buckled in." Interloper drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.

Fizz snapped his fingers, strapping his feet to the floor. "There, happy?" he snarled.

"You're gonna break your feet," Interloper warned him.

"I'll break _your_ feet!"

"How?" asked Josiah, confused. "We don't have bones."

"Yeah, how?" Ngyes agreed. "Unless Fizz has bones for some ungodly reason."

"I do not have bones," clarified Fizz.

"Hey, Ash, make him sit down!" Interloper looked back from his chair. He sighs when he sees that she's asleep on the bed already. "Somebody at least put her in a seat."

"Uh, that's on you, Fizz," Josiah said. "I mean, you brought her."

"This thing doesn't go over 70 miles an hour. Just drive already."

"Fiiine," said Interloper, defeated. He began to drive away.

"It's on you if you die," said Ngyes.

"But he can't die," Josiah interjected.

"Meh."

"Guess that if he can't die, besides avoiding injury, there really is no point in buckling in."

Ngyes began shoveling chips into his mouth, and Josiah took a sip of his Tentacola he had grabbed from the fridge. Over at his spot by the door, Fizz downed a whole two-liter.

"Fizz, you're lucky this place has a bathroom," said Interloper.

"I'm getting a pizza," said Josiah, opening a portal beside him and pulling a pizza box out. He began eating it.

"I should probably get a drink, too," Ngyes said, noticing Josiah's Tentacola. He got up and went to the fridge. "Uhhh, Kaurna, how much ale did you bring?"

"Hopefully all of it," said Fizz.

"Only two bottles," Kaurna confirmed.

"Damn, Kaurna, I expected better."

"Drink while drive is bad."

"Exactly," agreed Eagle. "Drinking for me in general is bad, I can't even drink a bottle."

"Doesn't help you downed it, Josiah," Aileen said.

"Fizz!" yelled Interloper after a little bit. "Get out the GPS, I have no idea where I'm going."

"Can't you just use your phone, Interloper?" asked Josiah.

"You literally just go straight," Fizz replied. "There are no turns out here."

"Oh, okay," Interloper said back. "Guess we're on the highway now!"

Josiah looked out the window. "Yeah, pretty barren, not much out there. Cod, it's been too long."

"There's the farms."

"Okay, no farms."

"No, we're passing farms."

"Okay, good, glad farms aren't on the itinerary."

Ngyes looked out the window and saw a semi, motioning to the driver to honk his horn. The horn blasted loudly, scaring him. "GAH! Mistake!"

"So, what's been going on at home for you, Eagle?" Fizz studied him.

"Not much. I _did _get in a fight with Eight, though."

"Why?" asked Interloper.

"Because she flipped me off."

"Why?"

"She hates me."

"Why?"

"No clue."

Fizz began making fun of Interloper for saying 'why' three times in a row.

"I heard that, cripple!" shouted Interloper.

"Oh, that's just rude," Fizz said.

"You be rude, I be rude."

"Hey, at least you'll heal," comforted Josiah.

"You said 'why' three times in a row, you sounded like a child."

"Child?" Interloper looked offended. "I'm pretty sure I'm older than you."

"Oh, really? How old are you?"

"21. How about you?"

Fizz began muttering under his breath.

"Hmm? What was that?"

"18…I'm not a child at least."

"Ah. Now, sit down, little boy."

"_Don't you ever call me that again._"

"Alright, I won't, young Fizz."

Fizz pulled his cane off the wall and shot a dart at the dashboard. It bounced off and landed on the floor. Interloper jerked the wheel in surprise, and the RV swerved.

"Gah!" he exclaimed.

"Woah, are you trying to kill us, Fizz?" Josiah asked.

"Why would you do that?" Ngyes was sitting upright on the couch, scared. The vehicle steadied.

"Yeah, what the fuck, man?"

"Well, I did warn him," Fizz said with a grin. He put the cane back up.

"Okay, I'm sorry!" Interloper kept his eyes on the road, and thankfully, there was no traffic around them. "Geez!"

"You coulda killed us, Fizz!" Josiah was not happy.

"Fucker," mumbled Interloper.

"Psh, boys," Aileen said. "Never understand them."

"It's okay, Inty," said Kaurna.

"Inty?" Interloper was not expecting that.

"Interloper too long."

"Come up with a better one than that."

"No, Inty's better!"

"Ugh…"

"Well, look, you've got a nickname now," said Josiah. "Don't think I can have one, my name doesn't seem to work that way."

"How about Josie?"

"Oh, cod, please not Josie."

"Nope, you're Josie to me now," Aileen joked.

"Dammit, Interloper, now I have a stupid name!" Aileen snickered at this.

"At least it's better than Inty," Interloper said.

"Sorta. But it sounds like a girl's name!"

"This is what happens when you have a long name," Fizz said.

"I never named myself, Eric's the one with the short name. Lucky bastard."

"You should hear what Ash calls me," Fizz stated.

"Fizzy?" Josiah guessed.

"Daddy?" said Interloper.

"Fucker?" Ngyes questioned.

Fizz slowly turned to look at Interloper.

"The fuck did you just say?"

"Maybe we should ask her what she calls you…"

"So, how did you all meet?" Kaurna asked after a pause.

"Me and Aileen?" Josiah inquired.

"Yes!"

"Oh! Well, we kinda just knew each other. At least since we were 3 for that matter."  
"Oh, nice!"

"Yeah, our parents were friends," Aileen said.

"The childhood sweetheart, then," Fizz stated.

"Yep, exactly. We confessed two years ago, although it took us _way_ too long to do so."

"How you met Ash, Fizz?" Kaurna wasn't done yet.

"The less you know, the better," replied Interloper.

"We stormed an Octarian base, she was one of the guards, I basically seduced her." Fizz ignored Interloper's warning.

"Okay…" Kaurna was not impressed.

"I'm gonna go grab a drink," said Josiah, who had finished his Tentacola. He got up and walked over to the fridge.

"So, how did all four of you guys meet?"

At that moment, the RV hit a bump, knocking Josiah over, who hit his head on the table. Instantly, his tentacle hair shifted from the usual lime green to black, along with his right arm.

"Augh!" he exclaimed.

"We just kinda...appeared," Ngyes said. Then, he noticed Josiah's tentacle hair. "Um…"

"Ugh, my head…"

"I met Fizz in an argument," Interloper told Kaurna.

"Yeah," Fizz agreed. "That was...hmm." He, too, noticed Josiah's tentacle hair.

"Why...is…" Ngyes obviously was confused.

Josiah grabbed his soda and sat down, rubbing his head.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Interloper told Kaurna.

"Oh…okay," she replied.

Ngyes, still confused, held up a mirror so Josiah could see himself.

"Wha- oh."

"The fuck?" Ngyes was as confused as he could possibly be.

"My basic color," Josiah responded. "Some fluke happened when I was born."

"Really now?"

"Yeah, gotta focus to keep it one color."

Josiah squinted, and the tentacle hair changed back to his normal green.

"That's better," he said, looking at his arm, which did the same. Aileen snickered. "Hey, you're no better off with your white basic color!"

"Uh, ouch," she responded.

"I think…" continued Interloper. "I met Ngyes when Fizz was showing me the power of Flex Tape."

"Basically," agreed Ngyes.

"Ngyes also shortly died after."

"Guess we became friends that way."

"Eagle just…showed up one day."

Ngyes turned towards Josiah. "You said something about a portal in your backyard?"

"Yeah," Josiah replied. "It just…appeared behind a bush."

"Wonder if any other worlds have that problem?"

"Curiosity got the better of me, and I investigated. For once, something like that wasn't a bad idea."

"Guess you could call us the three OG's," Ngyes said, motioning to the original 3. "Actually, don't call us that," he said after a brief pause.

"You know, Kaurna, I could ask the same," Aileen said. "How'd you and Interloper meet?"

"Oh, that's a good one," said Fizz.

"He wanted a bitch," Ngyes replied.

"He just came up and we talked," Kaurna replied, ignoring Ngyes's comment.

"I pushed him to do it," Fizz explained.

"Yeah," agreed Interloper. "I was kinda shy, but he convinced me to start asking people. Third time was the charm." He then turned to Fizz. "So, despite us getting on our nerves, thanks, Fizz."

Fizz snickered.

"Aww, that's cute," Aileen said.

Josiah lightly socked her in the arm. "Yeah, don't do that. Do _not _call them cute."

"Yeah, I don't need them getting all romantic in here," Fizz agreed.

"Doesn't ever stop you, Fizz," Interloper called.

"Hey, I'm _sexual_," Fizz protested. "And I play it for jokes."

"I let Inty drive!" KaurTna said suddenly. "Cannot distract driver!"

"Uh, you let him drive the RV or something else?" Josiah asked. At that moment, his watch beeped. He looked down at it. "Wow, midnight back home. Crazy diffrences not only in wheather but time here."

"Huh, cool," Fizz replied. He turned to Kaurna. "You didn't answer Eagle's question."

"What question?"

"I asked if you let him drive the RV or something else."

"I let him drive RV. What else?"

"Okay. Uh, you know…" Josiah took a drink of his Tentacola again, avoiding her question.

"Drive what?" Kaurna wasn't gonna let it slide.

"Don't need an answer!" Interloper said quickly, but she ignored him.

"Uh, Fizz?" Josiah said. "A little help being blunt here?"

"His _dick_!" Fizz exclaimed, slapping his knee.

"There we go."

"R-really?" Interloper was annoyed, and he turned to glare at Josiah, who took another drink.

"Hey, first off, it's how she said it! And then Fizz was blunt, not me!"

"Ooo, you screwed up again!" Aileen taunted.

"I'm with Eagle on this," Ngyes said. "He technically didn't say it."

"Hey! Eyes on road!" Kaurna directed Interloper's line of sight.

"Right! Sorry! So, how long am I driving?"

"I dunno," said Josiah. "Ask Fizz if he's done laughing over there."

"_Not done yet,_" said Fizz, who continued to laugh.

Josiah, in response, laid his head back on the seat and fell asleep instantly, soon followed by Aileen. Meanwhile, Ngyes plays Squid Jump for a while, and eventually falls asleep, game paused on level 78. Not long after, Kaurna puts some earbuds in and listens to music while reading a magazine.

"Seriously, how fucking far _is _this place?" Interloper said after 3 hours.

They hit a pothole, turning Ngyes into his basic form and tossing him on the floor.

"Ow," he said. "We're still driving? Damn." He checked the GPS. "We should be there just about now…"

"Hopefully," said Interloper.

Ngyes walked over to where Fizz was asleep on the floor and slapped him "Always wanted to do that."

"Good thing he's sleeping."

"Thought he'd wake up."

"Or dart you."

"Looks like we're just about there. Yo! Fizz, wake up!"

Fizz's eyes flew open. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?" he roared.

"We're here."

"Mmm…wha?" Josiah awoke, most likely from Fizz shouting. He lightly shook Aileen, who also woke up.

"Good, everybody's awake," said Ngyes.

Fizz got up and started smacking Ngyes with the cane.

"Fuck," he said, turning into a squid again and jumping into his bag. "Why?"

"Because you SLAPPED ME!"

Noooo, I would never…"

"I'm surprised you didn't shoot a dart at him," Interloper remarked.

"No, please don't!" Ngyes zipped up the bag from the inside.

"What's going on," Kaurna asked, pulling her earbuds out.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," Ngyes replied. "Fizz went back to sleep, though." Fizz, sure enough, was lying on the floor again. Slowly, Ngyes opened the bag and climbed out, turning bipedal again. "We're here!" he said, looking out the window.


	9. So what'd I miss?

Interloper's Explanations

What you missed…

Hello, Interloper here. I'm making this break just to show some things you may have missed because they weren't adapted. I'm listing them here just for the context of some scenes and references to try to clear up some confusion.

So here's what you missed in order (At least what I remember, Fizz feel free to add more if I missed anything):

Sushi-eating and Octo killing: The first technically RP chat we did was Fizz and another writer (I believe it was Inky, not sure what his profile name is though) were fighting and the other writer was massacring waves of Cephalopods. I joined in and did the same while eating sushi and we end up using quite a bit of powers against each other. It involved blowing shit up with our minds, flying, and teleporting. It was actually the event that started this whole thing.

The Power of Flex Tape: Fizz breaks a boat to show me the power of Flex Tape. He breaks a boat, uses flex tape on it, we ride on it, I'm impressed, and we crash it through a wall. Ngyes appears on the boat at the last second while it's sinking into the water and he melts in the water.

Reviving Ngyes: Fizz and I take Ngyes's ghost in a jar all the way to Cephalon HQ because for some reason that was the only spawn point we could use, don't ask me why. Zoey from Fizz's world led us through, but got splatted and sent back to her world. Along the way, we encounter Ash for the first time and a character from my world, Cass, dropped in unannounced to help with the ambush/steal Ash's thunder, but it ended up with a revived Ngyes and I chasing Cass around while Fizz took a disappointed Ash into the next room to do you know exactly what if you know anything about Fizz's world. We leave with Ash coming with Fizz.

(Fizz edit) Another thing that happened is that ngyes kicked the jar he was stuck in over a building, killing an inkling. We had to clean up the crime scene. Fizz got into a fight as a distraction and injured his leg really bad.

Interloper gets a Girlfriend: Almost immediately after these events, I'm lamenting a bit and Fizz pushes me to go out and talk to some girls to hopefully get one. First one was gay, second was in a relationship, but the third one gave me her number. I ended up going to a movie with her off-screen. This girl turned out to be Kaurna.

Again, Ngyes?!: Somehow, Ngyes got himself killed again. Thankfully though, we could take him to a stage this time. The spawn doesn't work at first, but I call Kaurna over and she fixes it. After some goading from Fizz, she kisses me and flips Fizz off before leaving. She and Fizz also had some slight history beforehand where they did some Grizzco shifts and Fizz broke some of her stuff after getting particularly angry. She was still sore about that at the time.

The Day after the Date: This was only mentioned as it happened offscreen, but Kaurna and I ended up sharing the entire bottle of Champaign Fizz gave us. We ended up going a little nuts end both woke up with bandannas on our heads and nothing covering our torsos.

Swimsuit Purchase: This was an infamous one for us because Fizz and I got a liiiittle carried away and may have pushed it slightly past a T-rating. Basically it involves going to Arowana mall and buying swimsuits for Kaurna and Ash. They try on some and wardrobe malfunctions happen. After the awkward nudity, they make their purchases and we leave the store. After some denial about being a bisexual, Ash makes out with Kaurna to push her into acceptance. I then portal Kaurna to her apartment, where she would take a day or so to process what she just felt. She would later send me a video love confession.

The Craziest Salmon Run: Me, Ngyes, and Eagle decided to do a Salmon Run. Eagle went through the tutorial while Ngyes and I watched from the boat. I decided to fish and accidentally caught a Maws that forced us onto land, where I ended up fighting Salmonids with no weapons of our own. I had an epic frying pan fight with a Chum. We then got into an actual Run where Eagle's lack of ownership of Splatoon 2 showed as there were Inkzookas in there and he didn't know how SR rounds worked. We just decided to go all out in the craziness and have every boss round happen at the same time. We ended up leaving third round.


	10. The exotic diner

**The exotic diner - transcribed by ngyespress.**

Interloper stepped out of the RV.

"So this is Polixia, huh?" he said.

"looks nice…"

Ngyes was wondering if that was the name of a town, or a disease.

"Nice place too." said Fizz.

"Good hotel."

"It's pretty small…" said Eagle.

"Then again, I'm used to small towns, so…"

"First things first." said Fizz to the group.

"We check into the hotel."

"Ooh, a list." Eagle said, sarcastically.

Fizz glared back at Eagle.

"Second, we go for food."

Kaurna pulled out her phone.

"I have up a list of the food places." she said.

Interloper moved up to her.

"Oh, let me see, Kaurna."

He turned to the RV, where Ash was still passed out on one of the beds.

"Hey Ash! After the hotel, we're getting food!"

No response.

Fizz walked into the RV.

"She's a heavy sleeper, let me do this."

Fizz lifts up his cane, and shoots Ash with a sugar dart.

She yawns, and calmly rises from her bed.

Ngyes wonders just how many times this has happened.

"Oh hey, there's a Woomies in town." said Interloper.

"I haven't been there since I was a little squid."

Both Eagle and Ngyes tilted their heads.

"Never heard of that." said Eagle.

"same."

"It's been a while, but I remember loving the fries." said Interloper.

"And every waiter there was female, for some reason."

Fizz cleans the bottom of his cane, and steps outside.

"Let's not get to the hotel too late, I've got stuff to do tonight." he said.

Everyone agreed, grabbed their belongings, and checked into the hotel.

As they enter the lobby, Ngyes suddenly poofs into a cloud of green ink, and disappears.

Nobody decides to question it, and they walk to reception.

"2 rooms, please." said Fizz.

"2? Won't we need like...four?"

"There's two beds in each room. I am NOT paying for 4."

"Okay, okay. So who's sharing with who?"

"I'd rather have Ngyes as far away from me as possible. Me and Eagle will share a room, since I hate him the least."

"Sounds fine," said Eagle. "As long as you and Ash are contained somewhat."

Ngyes suddenly appeared again.

"Suure, like that'll happen."

They each got room keys, and carried their bags into an elevator.

On the way up, Kaurma began humming along to the Muzak, which annoyed the shit out of everybody.

When the doors opened, everybody unlocked their rooms, and walked in.

"Why are you guys unpacking?" said Eagle.

"Because that's what you do at a hotel." responded Ngyes.

Aileen began unpacking her suitcase, just to piss off Eagle.

"I'm just taking out some clothes." said Fizz to Eagle.

"As long as you keep them on." cracked Interloper.

"No promises" said Ash.

"Hey, it'd be worse if it were me and Kaurna in there." said Interloper.

"Nobody in the building would sleep!" joked Ngyes.

Ash then waves flirtingly at Kaurna, once again referencing an event that was so raunchy, I'd get booted off of Fanfiction if I described it in detail.

"MOVING ONNN!" yelled Interloper, before things started to escalate.

Everyone left the hotel, to go for a meal.

Just as they exit the hotel, however, Ngyes once again poofs into a green cloud of ink.

"Well, Ngyes blipped out again." said Interloper.

They approached Woomies, and ordered a table.

As a waitress walked past them, Interloper noticed she had... a defining feature, to say the least.

"Huh… I think I missed part of the point of this place as a kid…" he said.

"Heh, yeah…" said Eagle, getting lost in a view of the waitress.

Aileen quickly slapped him awake.

The group is then sent to a table, where Fizz puts his cane under it.

"If any of you touch that, I'll saw your hand off." he said.

Everyone turns toward Fizz, and begins asking questions.

"What if someone else touches it?"

"Would you saw my hand off?"

"What if it was a kid?"

Rage grew on Fizz's face.

"LOOK, JUST DON'T TOUCH MY FUCKING CANE!" he said, angrily opening his menu.

"Ok, I won't!"

Everyone else then opened their menus.

"I'll just get the burger with fries." said Interloper.

"Yeah, that sounds good." replied Eagle.

Ash slaps her menu to the table.

"GIVE ME EVERYTHING!"

"I shall have the salad." chirped Kaurna.

Interloper turned to her.

"Kaurna… splurge a little."

"Mmm...Alright… I will have the burger as well."

Several minutes later, Aileen leans backwards in her chair, sucking down the last of her water.

"Ugh, where's that food? I'm starving!"

"Maybe we should order some... Service." said Fizz, staring at her phone.

"What service?"

Fizz nods to a waitress on the other side of the room, who's dancing in front of a table.

Aileen turns to Eagle.

"Josiah, I swear-"

Her sentence is cut short by Ngyes suddenly appearing in an empty chair at the table.

Eagle jumps back in shock, nearly tipping over his chair.

"You keep scaring the shit out of me, Ngyes!"

"Sorry man, I-"

Ngyes disappears again, before he can even speak.

Soon afterwards, Fizz manages to call a waitress over to their table.

"Service 4, please."

Interloper leans towards Fizz.

"What's service 4?"

"Just wait, Eagle wanted this one."

Interloper narrows his eyes, then sits back in his chair.

"Fizz, gimme that service menu." said Aileen, suspiciously.

Before Aileen can grab the menu, Fizz opens up a portal, sucking away the menu.

Fizz then whistles casually, as if nothing happened.

"Well, then I shall walk to the other table and find the service menu" said Kaurna, as she gets up and begins walking to the table on her left.

"As will I." Aileen says as she gets up and follows.

"Oh shit." said Eagle, nervously.

"I really fucked up, didn't 't I?"

Fizz then quickly grabs his cane, and darts Kaurna and Aileen.

They both yelp, and instantly fall to the ground.

"There, now we can enjoy the service without the stickler ladies killing the vibe."

"Fizz, please un-dart Kaurna."

"Fine, fine."

Fizz aims, and hits Kaurna with a Sugar Shot.

"eeEEE!" she shoots up, and turns angrily at Fizz.

"Give me the one reason I shouldn't turn your genitals into fish paste!"

"Again with the genitals?"

Yes, Kaurna has said that before.

Suddenly, a waitress comes over, and begins a seductive dance.

This, of course being the worst possible moment, Ngyes suddenly appears again.

"Agh! Stop doing that, Ngyes!"

Kaurna sinks into her chair uncomfortably.

"Uh...what is she…

Is this the service 4?"

"Yep, care to watch?" said Eagle proudly, leaning back in his chair.

Kaurna's face quickly turns red.

Ngyes turns around to see the waitress dancing, and Aileen sprawled out on the floor, with a dart in her arm.

"Well, I'm assuming I missed a lot of shit." he said, while trying to avoid looking at the dancer directly.

"Well, we ordered already." said Interloper, trying to tear his eyes away from the dancer.

"You can take some of Ash's food since she ordered everything, though."

Ngyes turned to face Ash.

"Hey Ash, can I-"

Ash angrily turned toward him and hissed loudly, making Ngyes jump back in his chair, and disappear again.

Kaurna puts her head on the table.

"Inform me of when it is over..."

"Eh, it's fine, Kaurna." said Interloper.

"It'll be over in a few minutes."

"Good…"

"Dunno why she's so hesitant to watch," said Fizz.

"I specifically told this waitress to do it because I saw her staring."

"Oh, our food's here, Kaurna!"

"Oh, good!" she raises her head from the table, and picks up her burger.

"So weird having Aileen here, and yet she's not pummeling me…" said Eagle, looking at Aileen's body, still sleeping on the floor.

He picked up his burger, and took a big bite out of it.

"..."

"Fizz, wake her up."

Fizz pays the waitress, and shoots Aileen with a sugar dart.

Aileen suddenly yelps, and shoots upright.

"What happened, Josiah?" she said angrily. "And if you lie to me, you are not going to be pleased with the outcome"

"Well…" said Eagle.

"We ordered something from the special menu, and we kiiinda worried you'd ruin our fun. Sooo, Fizz shot you and Kaurna with a tranq, and we left you unconscious for about the last 10 minutes.

"I'll admit, mistakes were made." said Fizz, making a gunshot-to-his-head motion.

"Uhuh." said Aileen, sitting down next to Eagle. "Well, simply because this is what I expect from you guys, I'm letting this slide. BUT, if it happens again, I swear to fucking cod, you will feel the wrath, and it will not be good."

"Uh, y-yeah, thanks." said Eagle, sinking into his chair.

Soon after, Fizz looks in the distance, and sees someone familiar.

"Oh, no fucking way." he says.

"What is it, Fizz?"

"It's… Aurie…"

Suddenly, Ngyes appears once more nearby.

"Aurie? Whodat?"

Eagle jumps back in his chair again.

"You don't understand how much that scares me, Ngyes!"

Ngyes turns to him, and shrugs.

"Aurie's one of Fizz's friends from his world." said Interloper.

"Of course she would be here…"

"She seduces everybody simply by saying 'hi'"

"It's probably a copy, like Cass and Joanne." says Interloper.

"...Maybe she won't recognize me?" said Fizz, nervously.

And then, by sheer coincidence, (Have you seen an rp before?) Aurie noticed the table, and waved to Fizz.

Everyone except Ngyes and Ash, who was busy eating the giant pile of food on her side of the table, groaned, as Aurie walked over.

"Aurie...!" said Fizz.

"Fizz!" exclaimed Aurie. "Good to see you!"

"Um...hello!" said Kaurna, nervously.

"H-hey…" said Eagle, trying not to sweat.

Aileen waved at Aurie.

"Hello there."

Ngyes, having no fucking clue what was about to happen, let out a casual "Hey."

"So you are one of Fizz's friends?" said Kaurna.

"I am indeed! One of his... Best friends..."

Aurie then proceeds to slowly run a finger down Fizz's shirt.

Kaurna sunk nervously back into her chair.

"Uh…"

Interloper leaned over to her.

"She's from Fizz's world." he whispered.

"Oh…" said Kaurna, completely understanding.

Aurie quickly notices Interloper, and turns to him.

"Ooh, Fizz, who's your handsome friend over there?"

Interloper quickly looked around, nervously.

"Which one?"

"You, silly!"

"Uh…" says Interloper, his cheeks quickly turning red.

"What's your name?"

"M-my name… They call me Interloper…"

"Ooh... Interloper, hmm?"

Aurie analyzes Interloper's body, making everyone very uncomfortable.

"And I am his girlfriend." says Kaurna, angrily crossing her arms and glaring.

"You're pretty hot yourself, Kaurna..." purrs Aurie.

"Uh…"

Kaurna's cheeks also turn red.

"She's...flirtatious, isn't she?"

"Oh you have seen Nothing yet." Fizz exclaims.

Ngyes realized where this is going.

I'm just gonna…

Suddenly, he disappears, as if he had control over it.

"Aww, there he goes again…" Eagle whines, wishing there was an easy way for him to leave, as well.

"Ooh, who are you?"

Aurie slowly walks over to Eagle, and strokes his arm.

"Uh… I-I'm Eagle, or at least, am here." he says, moving his arm away.

"Mmm... Cute..."

"Uh, thanks…"

Aileen turns to Eagle, and glares.

"Aileen, nothing is happening, at least on my end."

Eagle turns back to Aurie.

"She's a bit protective."

"She knows not boundaries, does she?" said Kaurna.

Aurie then slides over and pokes Kaurna's cheek.

"Not in the slightest, hot stuff."

Aurie then whispers something in Kaurna's ear, making her freeze, and blush even harder.

"Aurie, what're you telling Kaurna?" questioned Interloper.

Aurie doesn't say anything, but winks at kaurna, handing her a piece of paper before walking off.

"Oh, good. She didn't flirt with me." exhales Aileen.

Kaurna looks at the paper, and her face turns an even darker shade of red, which I'm certain isn't even medically possible, but hey, I'm not the writer here.

"W-well, I am finished eating!" she stands up, getting ready to leave.

"Seriously, what was on the paper?" questions Eagle.

"No telling!" yells Kaurna, stuffing the paper in her shirt as Eagle tries to grab it.

"Based on what I know about her, I'm sure I already know what's on that paper." says Fizz.

"I am burning this." says Kaurna, as she turns and walks out the door.

Interloper quickly follows.

Fizz gets up, but has to drag Ash back, who was still eating.

Eagle dumps a pile of credits on the table, and leaves with Aileen.

"Soooo...what was on that paper, Kaurna?" asks Interloper.

"Something flirty… That is all you shall know." she groans.

Eagle looks at Kaurna.

"Okay, better than nothing."

Then, without warning, Ngyes appears in front of Eagle, making them collide, and fall to the ground.

"Oh shit, sorry!" he yells.

"Oh, hey Ngyes." says Interloper, casually.

"What has been happening with you, man?" says Eagle, as he gets up from the ground.

"I honestly don't know what the hell has been happening." replies Ngyes, also standing up.

"Well, hopefully we won't have to deal with...her...again…" groans Interloper.

"Yeah, I do not think I can handle that…" says Kaurna, still blushing.

"Nah, we totally will." says Fizz.

"Yeah." says Ngyes. "I mean, this is the Shared Universe."


	11. Fizz's interlude

**This would be a good time to mention that everything here is actually canon to my universe. But only mine. The other writers have wisely decided to not make this canon.**

Fizz shoots awake as the echo of a gunshot rings through his head.

He looks at Ash, sleeping peacefully as usual. She had a tendency to sleep through Fizz's nightmares.

He sighs and hops out of the hotel bed, grabbing his cane off the stand as he does.

He rubs his eyes and exits the room, leaning against the hallway wall.

He quickly takes a pill from his cane and sighs.

"Hah... Pain."

He looks down both sides of the hallways and starts off torward the lobby.

He had told Terry that his time was up and he needed to come back. Having a confirmed dead squid back alive would not spell good news if it went on for too long.

His nightmare had woken him up early, which didn't matter to him. He turns off the alarm he had set for an hour later and steps into the lobby.

"...I have enough time."

He opens a portal, and steps through it into his bedroom. His actual bedroom.

He looks over Sarah's sleeping form.

"I'm here, Sarah. I'm here."

She stirs, and slowly turns to look at him.

Her weak smile both destroys and warms his heart.

"You came back...!"

He nods and kisses her forehead.

"How are you feeling? Any better?"

She shakes her head.

"I feel weaker every day. I don't know how much longer I have..."

Her lip quivers and she closes her eyes in an attempt to not cry.

Fizz sets his cane down and gets on his knees, becoming eye level with Sarah.

"You're not going to die again. Zoey is getting closer every day."

She lets out a shaky sigh and cups Fizz's cheek.

"The only time you've ever been hopeful..."

"I refuse to believe that I'll have to lose you a second time."

She scoots forward and gives him a gentle kiss.

He tears up a bit, but wipes them away quickly.

"So how are your friends in that other universe?"

"They're all fine. I get the impression they don't particularly like me though."

"And how's... Ash?"

He looks at her in regret.

"Not as good as you."

She smiles again and pats his shoulder.

"You should get back to doing whatever work you came here for. I know how much it pains you to... Be here."

He nods and gives her one last kiss before grabbing his cane and standing up.

"I'll be home soon Sarah. I promise."

She turns over in the bed and closes her eyes.

He can't bring himself to move for a good minute, before he's finally able to open a portal and get to the square.

Terry's already waiting for him, and to his surprise, so is Alicia.

"Terry."

"Fizz."

"You know the rules. You can't stay here anymore. You have to come back to the shared universe."

Alicia stands up and gets right in Fizz's face.

"Why. Why does he have to go back?! Tell me."

Fizz pushes her back.

"Because he died, Alicia. He can't be running around when he is confirmed dead here."

Terry stands up and puts a hand on Alicia's shoulder.

"It's alright. I can't be here anymore. He warned me before he even sent me here."

"I don't want you to leave..."

Fizz shakes a bit.

"I have to leave, you know I do."

Alicia pulls him into a kiss suddenly, which surprises both him and Fizz.

Fizz exhales and looks away.

"I love you."

Terry nods back.

"So do I."

Fizz sighs and opens up a portal.

"C'mon. Time to go."

Terry smiles at Alicia one last time before going through.

Fizz is about to step through too, when Alicia interrupts him.

"I know it was you."

Fizz freezes and turns back.

"What was me?"

"You're the one who edged him on again."

His memory sparks and he's thrust back into his own past.

The plaza was crowded that day, but that didn't stop him from spotting the two of them at a table, looking happy.

"Aren't they supposed to be fighting?"

He sees Alicia get up and walk off.

"I guess I'll ask him about it."

He goes over and sits down, surprising Terry.

"Fizz! What's up?"

"Yo, what are you doing talking to Alicia?"

"Oh, uh, I think we're on better terms now! It's kinda nice not to he fighting all the time."

"Really? But you and her are like... Mortal enemies! You've fought for as long as I can remember!"

"So? She's a nice girl."

Fizz scoffs.

"Nice? Dude, she's literally been one-upping you for years!"

Terry bites his lips and taps the table.

"Yeah, but-"

"Look, she's an egomaniac. She wants to be better than you ALL THE TIME. Is that not just a little ridiculous?"

Terry suddenly gets up and leaves.

"Uh... Alright...? I wasn't done, buuut..."

He shrugs and gets up to leave.

It wasn't long after that when he received the news.

Karl handed him a letter that was written by Terry. It had basically all but spelled out that the duel had happened because of him.

He comes back to reality and turns back to Alicia.

"I didn't know. I was pointing out a fact, and he just ran off."

She nods.

"Mhmm. It was still your fault."

A wave of guilt floods over him as he closes his eyes.

"I know."

His scratchy voice echos through the square.

He steps through the portal without another word.

Terry is looking around the hotel lobby when he gets there.

"Where are we?"

"A hotel in a nearby city. I'll portal you back."

He opens another portal.

"Oh, before you go..."

He pulls out a card.

"You may not be able to stay, but visiting is allowed."

He takes the card, smiles, and nods.

"Thank you, Fizz."

He leaves through the portal.

Fizz starts shaking, before yelling out in anguish.

"WHY? WHY AM I LIKE THIS?!"

He punches the wall in anger, which does nothing but cause his knuckles to bleed.

He groans in pain and takes another pill from his cane.

"That's all anyone thinks of me, the manipulater, the evil bastard!"

He grabs some bandages out of a portal and starts wrapping them around his hand.

"I'm not evil. I make mistakes, I make the wrong choices..."

He winces as he pulls off an end of the bandages.

"It's not like it matters. I won't change. No matter how much they want me to..."

He shuffles off, likely to collapse right back into the bed with Ash.


	12. Morning events

**Author's Note: **Sheesh, how many have I written at this point? I'll probably be taking a slight break from transcribing this stuff to focus on my own story. Also, considering I have another one done already that we're not even at yet, I'm set for a little while. Anyways, Eagle out.

The hotel lobby was empty, save for Interloper, Ngyes and Kaurna, who were eating breakfast. Josiah walked in, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"Hey," said Interloper, noticing him walk in.

"Morning," Josiah replied with another yawn. He sat down.

Kaurna just waved at him, her mouth full of food. Ngyes also greeted him, then got up to get himself a waffle.

"Ugh, still tired, just woke up." Josiah yawned for a third time. "Eh, might as well grab something," he said to himself. He then got up and grabbed a couple muffins from the bar. "So, what are we doing today?" he asked upon sitting down.

Ngyes just shrugged, focused on his waffle.

"Not sure," said Interloper. "Kaurna wants to go on a jog, but I'm sure not all of us are gonna be down for that."

"We could check out the swimming pool, get some swimming and relaxation in."

"That sounds good," said Ngyes. Suddenly, he disappeared.

"Hey, where's Fizz?" Interloper asked.

"Oh, he and Ash are still asleep," Josiah replied. "And Aileen's in the shower."

"Ah."

"Oh, shit, maybe I shouldn't've left her alone with Ash…"

"Hey, it'd be worse if it were Kaurna."

Kaurna nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, but still. Especially since she was in the shower."

At that moment, Fizz walked in with bandages all over his hand.

"Oh, hey, you're awake," Josiah said, not noticing the bandages.

"Mhmm," Fizz replied, sitting down.

"What happened to your hand?" Interloper asked.

"Don't worry about it."

"Feel like we should, I mean, your leg's bad enough."

"Yeah, and I told you about my face," said Aileen, walking up perfectly silently. Josiah jumped.

"Aileen!" he said. "Don't sneak up on us like that!"

Aileen snickered.

"I already knew about your face," Fizz told Aileen. "I've been told your story before." He got up and began making himself a waffle, too.

"Right," Josiah agreed. "But the other's didn't."

"So? It's just a hand, you don't need to worry about it."

"Guess we're asking Ash then."

"She doesn't know about it, either. Good luck."

"Speaking of Ash," Interloper began. "I'm surprised she isn't pounding the food at the buffet."

"She went into the shower after Aileen," replied Fizz. "She's probably gonna be in there a while."

"Surpised she didn't get in with Aileen."

"I as well," Aileen agreed. "I'm extremely glad she didn't though, probably would've kicked her out, too."

"Yeah, she wouldn't leave if you tried," Fizz warned.

"I can pack a pretty mean punch." Josiah's eyes widened and he nodded in agreement.

"But she can take literally everything. She got stabbed in the arm once and did the dishes with the knife still in her. No joke."

"At least she didn't try. Would've gotten the hell out of there whether I was dressed or not, I'm not showering with her."

Kaurna put her fork down. "Ah, finished the food."

"Wow, you ate it all," said Interloper, surprised.

"I am learning to 'do the splurge' a little."

"Not learning your Inklish though," Fizz joked.

"I am still learning…"

"Although none of us are helping, we leave it when you say something wrong."

"That is not untrue."

"I can speak both," Aileen said. "Considering the fact that both my parents natively spoke Octarian and then moved to an Inkling community before I was born. I'd probably be the most helpful for you to become fluent."

"Oh, that is cool!" Kaurna looked impressed.

"Comes in handy sometimes."

"I am still learning but hope to be fluent in both some day."

"Well, you're well on your way."

Kaurna's face went red with embarrassment.

"I don't have to learn, it's all translated for me." Fizz looked smug.

"Cheater," Kaurna complained.

"Who's cheating? I didn't ask for this."

Suddenly, Ngyes appeared out of thin air.

"Urk!" sputtered Josiah, choking on his juice in surprise.

"Hey," Interloper said.

"Hi," Ngyes replied.

"So, what's the activity today?" Kaurna asked.

"We were thinking the pool," Ngyes replied.

"The pool sounds mostly okay," Aileen agreed.

"I have been thinking of that jog," Kaurna mentioned.

"But you're more likely to run into Aurie that way," Interloper warned her.

Her eyes widened. "Pool is fine! But I could jog with Inty and then go to the pool."

"I'm going on a walk later," Fizz offered. "I could keep an eye on Kaurna while she jogs."

"That is sounding actually not bad."

"Huh, that's a first."

"As long as you keep the cane of evil away from me."

Interloper snickered. "Cane of evil, heh."

"Actually, not a bad description of the cane," Aileen said, rubbing the spot Fizz had shot her in the night before.

"I have been hit with it twice," Kaurna complained.

"Hey, the cane isn't evil!" Fizz protested. "It's self defence."

"It is evil!"

"But is the wielder evil?" Aileen wondered aloud."Maybe…"

Fizz ground his teeth at this and stormed off.

"Wait, are you doing the stroll right now?"

"Fizz, where are you going?" Josiah called. "She didn't mean that!"

"Uh, yeah I did," Aileen retorted.

"Not helping," Josiah hissed.

"I have not accused him of evil, only the cane," Kaurna said.

"Probably was Aileen's fault."

"Kaurna, you can meet me outside whenever you're ready!" Fizz called back.

"I need to get ready first!" She ran off to her room. "Come, Inty!"

"Er-" Interloper got up. "Right!" He followed her

"Yeah, I could use a jog, too, wait up!" Aileen followed as well.

"Pff, not going anywhere," Josiah said. "I'm still in my pajamas, too, I'm not leaving."

A few minutes later, Kaurna came back in running clothes. Interloper followed her.

"I am the ready, Fizz!" she called.

Aileen walked in just a moment later, having donned her running clothes, as well.

"Hey, you look nice, Aileen," Josiah said, admiring her.

"Shut up!" she said back, her face red.

"I'm right behind you," Fizz said.

"Okay, let's go!" At this, Kaurna stretched for a few seconds and then takes off. Interloper follows, but starts lagging behind.

"Wait for me!" Aileen said and ran to catch up.

Outside, they turn to the right out of the hotel parking lot. Kaurna was slightly ahead of Interloper.

"Wait up!" Interloper said, attempting to catch up.

"Slow poke!" Kaurna taunted.

"She's fast, I will admit," Aileen said. "But so am I!" With a burst of speed, she caught up with Kaurna.

"I was trained to be fast!"

"You're not the only one."

"Oh, cool!"

"Wait, how is Fizz gonna keep an eye on us if he can't run?"

Kaurna looked back and saw Interloper lagging, struggling to keep up.

"Maybe just the slight jog…"

"Hmm? Slow down?"

"Yes. I do not want to be too far away."

"I see."

The two girls slowed up a bit, allowing Interloper to keep up.

"Yeah, where is Fizz?" Kaurna looked around.

"Somewhere around here…" Aileen looked around as well.

Suddenly, Fizz appeared a little bit in front of them beside the sidewalk.

"Gah!" Kaurna exclaimed.

"The fuck? How?" Aileen was surprised as well.

"Oh, right, portals" Interloper said.

"Damn, that sounds cool. Should see if I can put anything like that in my eyes, like Josiah's arm."

"That sounds painful," Kaurna said.

"They're fake, remember? It shouldn't be."

"Ooooh…" Kaurna glanced at them. "I should have a look at them."

"I could pop one out now, they're connected to my brain with a USB cable."

"They look interesting…"

"They certainly are."

Interloper finally finished catching up.

"You need to work on the cardio," Kaurna noted.

"Yeah…" Interloper smirked. "But the view from the back wasn't bad."

Kaurna slapped him at this comment. "I hope you were eying only me!"

"I was, geez."

"Good."

"If you looked at me…" Aileen left the threat unfinished.

"I didn't!" Interloper protested. "And even if I did, my feelings are for Kaurna, okay?"

"Awwww." Kaurna blushed.

"That's a good point," Aileen admitted.

"Aaaand we're passing Fizz again."

Sure enough, Fizz was standing 20 feet in front of them again, watching them.

"Hi!" Aileen said, and Kaurna waved. "Did he notice?"

"Maybe he paid us no attention."

"Perhaps…"

"Hey," Interloper said, struggling again to keep up. "If you two want to race, go ahead."

"Really?" Kaurna sounded happy with his idea.

"Sure."

Kaurna turned to Aileen. "Want the run?"

"I do wonder…" she allowed her thought to trail off. "Sure, why not? I will let you know that I've only been out of the army for a couple of weeks, so I'm still in shape."

"So have I!" At this, Kaurna bolted ahead at an impressive speed.

"Oh, shit!" Aileen ran off after her. "You got a head start!"

"Look at them go," Interloper said, keeping his original pace.

Fizz tapped his cane, making Interloper look over to where he had appeared.

"Oh, hey, Fizz! I'm letting them race."

"Mhmm."

"I figured, why not let them have fun? I'm fine running by myself. What's the worst that can happen?"

At this, Aileen literally crashed into Aurie, who had walked in their way without them noticing. "Oh, cod…"

"Run!" Kaurna cried. "Keep running!"

"Eep!" The twi of them kept running, leaving the Octoling behind.

"Huh?" Interloper squinted to see what was wrong. "Who'd they run into?"

"Hang on." Fizz then disappeared and reappeared a moment later with Aurie. "I'm taking her to the hotel. Do not let Eagle or Aileen go back to the room." He then disappeared once more.

"But-" Interloper started, but Fizz was gone already. "I can't tell Eagle, he's back at the hotel! And I can't tell Aileen either, she's too far ahead!"

Aileen at that moment was starting to get a bit winded. "So...where are we...running to?"

"Just around the block and back to the hotel."

"Okay...whew, looks like you're...in better shape...than I am."

"I am doing my daily routine every day!"

"I guess there's a reason it's called a daily routine then."

"It's important to remain in top shape!"

"A good plan."

"And…" she blushed. "I hope Inty likes it…"

"I don't see why he shouldn't, I'd say you're pretty attractive from a guy's standpoint. That exercise only helps more."

"Good," Kaurna said, relieved Aileen meant that a guy may find her attractive. "I'm tired of the women coming onto me…"

"Yeah, those people…"

After a bit of silence, Kaurna noticed the hotel a ways ahead of them, as they had gone in a large square around the town. "Oh, we are coming upon the hotel again!"

"Oh, yep! Look at that!"

"I will be needing a shower after this, that is why I did not do it before."

"Same here. I shouldn't've taken one before we left. Big waste of time if you ask me."

"Hmm…" Kaurna thought a moment. "I will race you to the lobby!"

"You're on!"

The two of them burst forward in a sprint, Kaurna arriving a split second before Aileen.

"Heh…" Kaurna caught her breath for a moment. "You almost won."

"Man, fast…" Aileen wandered to the breakfast bar. "Whew. Water." She grabbed a cup and filled it up.

Ngyes noticed them. "Damn, you're back already? That was fast."

"Oh yes!" Kaurna said proudly. "An Octoling fast on her feet is the good soldier."

"Not a bad sentence," Aileen corrected. "But maybe you mean 'a good soldier.'"

"To my room now!" Kaurna declared. She pushed the elevator button.

"Alrighty then."

As they were waiting, Josiah wandered out of the bar. "That was a fast run, Aileen."

The door to the elevator opened and they headed in.

"Soo, we're heading to the pool after this?" Ngyes asked.

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea," Aileen agreed.

The elevator doors began closing just as Interloper entered the lobby, completely out of breath. "Wait!" he cried, running up to the door, but it closed before he could get there.

"Wonder what Inty wanted?" Kaurna said.

Ngyes pushed the door open button and the doors promptly slid open. Interloper was breathing heavily on the other side.

"Oh, cod…" he said, catching his breath. "You guys are so fast," he exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Josiah asked.

"Fizz is in your room with Aurie. Don't fucking go in there. Oh, cod…" Interloper then fainted. Kaurna smoothly caught him before he hit the floor. Ngyes ran out of the elevator towards the bar.

"I'm not worried about Aurie being in our room, but Aileen." Josiah turned to her. "The fuck, how fast did you run?"

"Geez, we didn't run that fast," she replied.

Ngyes came back with a cup of water in his hand and dumped it over Interloper's face. The elevator then began its ascent.

"Gah!" Interloper sputtered. "You two would be monsters with Ink Brushes!"

"Well, Aileen, I'll grab your clothes for you," Josiah offered. "Considering that you probably don't want Aurie on you, huh?"

"She'll be on you, Eagle!" Interloper warned.

"Meh, no big deal. I hope. As long as Aileen can use your guys' shower, that is."

"It's fine…"

Right then, the elevator made it to their floor and the door slid open.

"Okay, then in I go." He walked up to the hotel room door and knocked. "Fizz?" There was no answer, so he proceeded to knock more. "Fizz, open up."

Kaurna and Interloper went into their own room, wanting to avoid any confrontations with Aurie.

Fizz then opened the door just enough to be clearly heard. "Go eat more breakfast, I'm busy." He then shut the door.

"Aileen needs more clothes!" protested Josiah.

"Just use a pair of mine," Kaurna offered, poking her head out of her room.

"Alright," Aileen said. "As long as they fit just fine, that is."

"Hopefully…"

"Well, at least you'll have some," Josiah said. "I gotta stay in my pajamas until Fizz lets us in. At least they're comfortable."

While the two girls got their clothes, Interloper spoke up. "So, do you suspect that Ash got breakfast, or did she join them?"

"Uh, probably joined them," Josiah said with a slight shudder. "Geez, those three…"

"Hey, guys, what's up?" Ash called, walking up to them.

"Well, nevermind that."

"Hey, Ash," greeted Interloper. "Fizz is doing Aurie in your room."

"He's what!?" she cried.

"And breakfast is downstairs," he finished.

"Oh, hell no!" She burst into the room.

"Uh...you don't think we'll hear...sounds, do you?"

"I don't hear anything…" Josiah said. "Now I'm curious."

Aileen came out that moment after hearing that and grabbed his arm. "Nuh-uh, you're staying here."

"Yeah, stay with Aileen," Interloper agreed.

Ash then came back out. "You lied to me!"

"What were they doing then?" Josiah asked.

"Aurie wasn't even in there, you liars!"

"Fizz, what are you doing in there?" Josiah broke free of Aileen's grip and entered the room, where Fizz was standing there in the doorway wrapping his hand in bandages. "What do you idiots want?" he demanded.

"Alright, I'm getting my clothes. Move." Aileen shoved by Fizz.

"Where is Aurie?" Kaurna asked, joining them. "Did you not take her here?"

"Yeah, I took her here," Fizz replied. "She's not here anymore, though."

"That was fast…"

"What was fast?"

"I was expecting you to...be doing relations...with Aurie."

"She's not the only one who thought that," input Josiah.

"We've done that a lot lately," Fizz explained. "And she's got three guys on a cycle. She doesn't need me right now."

"Then what were you doing with her?"

"Unimportant," Fizz said with a glare.

"Why did you shut them out?" demanded Kaurna.

Josiah motioned to his bandaged hand. "It had something to do with your hand, didn't it?"

"No, I just needed to rewrap my hand. I was bleeding all over the floor through my bandages." Fizz finished the wrapping.

"We could have helped!" Kaurna said.

"We're your friends, you can tell us what's wrong." Josiah crossed his arms.

"Nothing's wrong," Fizz replied, still glaring at them. "I talked with Aurie a bit and wrapped my hand again. That's it."

"No, your hand. What the hell happened? It was perfectly fine last night, but now it's not."

"He will keep on asking, so you may as well answer," suggested Kaurna.

"When I want to know something, I will find a get my answer one way or another."

"I was dealing with some unfinished business last night and hurt my hand, happy!?"

"Partially. That's better than nothing at least."

"Well, at the very least, Aurie isn't here anymore," said a relieved Kaurna.

"You won't be seeing her anymore, don't worry," Fizz said.

At that moment, the shower in Interloper's room turned on, and Aileen stuck her head out the door. "If you guys try anything funny while I'm in here, I swear…" She then shut the door.

"Hey, I was going to be using the- oh." Kaurna looked disappointed.

Ngyes randomly re-appeared once more.

"Guess you can use ours," Josiah offered. "Not sure why she used yours though…"

"I will use yours then. Inty, get my clothes!" Kaurna entered the bathroom and Interloper retrieved her clothes.

"You could always share the shower," Fizz muttered.

"Yeah, there's no way Aileen would let anyone shower with her," Josiah replied. "Even me. I'm sure we'll get there some day, though."

"You all are slow."

"No, you're just fast. You fucked Sarah on the first or second day you knew her, that's pretty fast."

"Second day. And we shared the shower that day, too. You're slow."

"No, you just don't take your time."

"Not everybody fucks on their first date, Fizz," Interloper said, sitting on a bed in the room. The shower then turned on.

"Well, if you excuse me, I have things to do." Fizz walked off.

After a while, the shower turned off. "Inty, I am done!" Kaurna called.

"Okay!" he replied, leaving the clothes outside the door. The door opened a crack and one of Kaurna's hands slipped out, snatching the clothes. The door then shut.

"Hmm, Aileen's taking a while," said Josiah, sounding a slight bit confused.

"Not really."

"She's normally quicker. Like, five minutes."

"Huh. Wanna check on her?"

"She'd throw something at me, no doubt."

"Just knock on the door…"

"Eh, I might as well then." He got up and walked into the other room, then knocked on the bathroom door. "Aileen, you good in there?"

"Not now!" a muffled voice called back from the other side of the door.

"Aileen, what's going on?"

"I said not now!"

"What is not down?" Kaurna asked, walking in the room.

"You mean up?" Ngyes corrected.

"Y-yes."

"We gotta work on your Inklish."

"Aileen's taking a while," Interloper told her.

"Yeah, not sure why though," Josiah remarked.

"I will check," Kaurna said.

"Okay, but if she yells, don't blame me."

She knocked on the door. "Hi, Aileen! It's me! Why are you wasting water?"

"Go away, please! I'll be out in a bit!"

Kaurna turned to the three guys. "You guys leave room." She pointed at the door.

"Mmkay." Ngyes walked out, Interloper following him.

"Huh?" Josiah protested. "No, she's my girlfriend, I'm not going anywhere."

"I will give the girl talk. No boys. Now shoo!" She pointed at the door again.

"Ugh, fine." He walked out.

Kaurna knocked on the door once more. "Aileen, it's only me now."

"What do you not understand about 'no?'" Aileen responded, clearly annoyed.

"What is going on?"

"It's…this stupid eye."

"Are you in need of help?"

"I…guess. Just let me get dressed first." After some shuffling noises, Aileen opened the door.

"What are you in need of help with?"

"This stupid eye, the damn thing got wet and apparently wasn't waterproof."

"Oh…"

"So it decided it was gonna fizzle out, and now I can't see out of it. But of course, the other one's fine for some reason."

"Oh, I can fix it! Surely I can!"

"Okay…" Aileen pulled the eye out, a small glass and metal ball. She disconnected a small wire and handed it to Kaurna. "Cod, this feels weird."

After a bit of tinkering around, Kaurna gave it back. "Try now!"

Aileen slipped the eye back into her head. "Hey, it works! Thanks!"

"Welcome!"

Just then, a knock was heard at the door. "You guys done in there?" asked Ngyes.

"Oh, yeah!" Aileen opened the door.

"What was that all about?"

Kaurna and Aileen explained the whole thing quickly.

"So you yelled at us…over that?" Josiah looked confused.

"Yeah…" Aileen looked slightly ashamed.

Interloper looked proud. "Told ya she's a tech genius!"

"Probably should waterproof it," Ngyes suggested.

"Yeah," agreed Aileen. "Don't want both of them to stop working underwater, that wouldn't be good."

Ngyes reached into his bag and pulled out a can of polyurethane. "Would this help?"

"Ah, yeah, I think it would." Aileen walked over to the sink and pulled out the first eye, spraying the polyurethane on it. "Now to test it." She ran a bit of water over it.

"It'll also give your eyes a bit of an anime shine, when the light hits it right."

Aileen plugged the eye back in. "Ope! It works! And uh…thanks, I guess?" She then repeated the process with the other eye.

"You're welcome."

"Well, that's done then," said Josiah. "Crazy to think that your eyes being like that was partially my fault.

"Oh, come on," Aileen replied with a light punch in the shoulder. "You didn't know that would happen."  
"I'm surprised they weren't waterproof in the first place," Ngyes remarked.

"Yeah, Marina had to throw them together really quickly, so waterproofing them at the time was out of the question."

"I told you so," a voice from behind them said.

Josiah jumped and spun around. "Ah! Fizz, don't scare us like that!"

"Fuck you, Fizz," Aileen said, flipping him off.

"Where were you, man?" Interloper asked.

"I was making some coffee," he replied, holding up a cup.

"Ah. What did you mean about us not seeing Aurie again?"

"Oh, that. I sent her to a guy's house, she won't be leaving any time soon."

"Okay, whew," Josiah said, relieved. "Knowing you, I thought it was something else."

"I don't- did you really assume I killed her?"

"No!" Interloper said.

"I mean, I didn't say it, you did," Josiah said.

With a huff, Fizz portaled away.

"Well, everything's now in order," Kaurna said, ignoring the confrontation. "Should we chill a bit?"

"Oh, yeah, good idea." Josiah walked towards his room. "I brought my Swap, let me grab it." A few seconds later, he came out holding a game console and dock in his hands, along with a few controllers. "Got a few games on it already."

Mini note: In case you haven't picked up, a Swap is the equivalent, at least in my OC's universe, to a Switch. Likewise, a SplatBox, or simply SBox, is an XBox, and a KelpStation is a PlayStation. Back to the story.

Interloper looked around. "I think Ash went to breakfast," he remarked, not seeing her anywhere.

"Yeah, probably."

"Oh, we brought my system!" Interloper said, noticing the Swap. Kaurna then plugged in Interloper's beast of a console.

"Aww, you just had to one-up me, didn't you?" Josiah whined.

"We can still use yours."

"Well, knock yourselves out, I'm gonna go nap some, still a bit tired. Never sleep to well in a hotel, ya know?"

"Alright, see ya for now, then," Interloper replied.

Josiah walked out of the room and the other four Oceanics started up a game.


	13. It's the pool one

**AN: **Wow, it's been a while.

Due to a Fizz-related mixup (see what I did there?), we got a bit behind in writing since he pushed the project of this chapter onto me.

Anyways, here's the next chapter. On a quick note, I'd like to mention that due to continuity, I'll be referring to my OC, Josiah, as Eagle, like the other writers. Keeps it cleaner.

Ach, I ramble too much, onto the chapter.

**~~A Non-Lewd Pool Scene? Blasphemy!~ (You seriously had to name it that, didn't you...)**

"Pool time!" Kaurna announced back up at the room. Everybody glanced at the clock by the bed and discovered that they had been playing video games for a couple hours.

"Wow, we spent quite a bit of time playing," Aileen said. "I'll go wake up Josiah and get ready." With that, she headed out of the room and entered her own. The bathroom, directly to the left upon entry, was occupied at the present time. Aileen knocked on the door.

"Who's there?" a voice called from the inside.

"It's me," Aileen replied.

"Oh, I'll be out in just a minute."

"Alright, be quick, the others are ready to go to the pool."

Aileen entered the rest of the room, which had two beds against the wall to her left, both queen sized and unmade. She sighed at the untidiness of the room, as there were clothes on the floor, along with various other items strewn about. The TV stand opposite the beds, even, was atrocious. She shrugged it off, telling herself that she'd make the boys take care of it later, as it was mostly their stuff on the floor.

She walked over to her backpack, a blue hiking pack. She opened it up and pulled out a pink and white striped one-piece swimsuit. She didn't care much for bikinis, partially because she thought they exposed too much. And, she reminded herself, she was growing outwards slightly since she hadn't actively exercised in a few weeks at least. Didn't want to give that away.

Aileen closed the pack and walked back over to the door to the bathroom and waited. She wasn't changing openly in the bedroom, even if it were just her and Eagle. She wasn't ready for that just yet, although she knew they were getting close to that kind of intimacy.

The door opening snapped her out of her thoughts. Eagle, green tentacles cut slightly long, almost in a female cut, were slightly wet, having just gotten out of the shower. Eagle walked past her, towel around his waist, over to his backpack, which was almost identical to Aileen's. His dad had bought them for the two of them a few years ago.

"You say they're waiting for us?" he asked, pulling a shirt over his head.

"Yeah, we're the only two that aren't ready." Aileen entered the bathroom and quickly changed out her usual attire, being a lose pink and white striped shirt, the usual Inkling shorts (even though she was an Octoling) and a pair of flip-flops. Why she was wearing that in March, nobody knew, although back in her universe, it was August. She slipped on the swimsuit, then put the shirt on over her swimsuit.

Upon exiting the room, she saw Eagle waiting for her on the bed, clad in his own pair of green swim trunks and a black T-shirt.

"All set?" he asked, picking up two towels.

"Yeah, that should be it."

The two exited the room, and were greeted by Kaurna, Interloper, and Ash.

Interloper wore a normal pair of trunks and a white T-shirt. Kaurna wore normal clothing, and Ash wore an extremely skimpy bikini, leaving practically nothing to the imagination.

"Kaurna's wearing her swimsuit under her clothes," said Interloper.

Eagle looked over at Ash, noticing her suit of choice. He sighed. "Ash, at least wear a shirt until we get to the pool."

"Yes, please…" Kaurna agreed, trying to keep her eyes away.

"Nope!" Ash responded. "No point in wearing it if I'm just going to take it off when we get there."

"But people are staring," Kaurna protested, seeing a few people looking in Ash's direction.

"Let them stare, I don't mind."

"Ash, at least wear something to look normal on the way," Interloper said. "And so you have something dry to wear on the way back."

"Hmm, yeah," Eagle interrupted. He, too, was attempting to avoid his gaze. "What are you going to wear on the way back?"

Kaurna groaned. "I think the answer is obvious…"

"Nothing?" Aileen asked, concern in her voice. She was sure that nobody wanted that.

Ash laughed. "There are towels down there you know!"

"Oh, right…"

"Where's Fizz, anyways?" asked Interloper, changing the subject as the group began walking down the hotel hallway. "He tell you where he went, Ash?"

"Nope, he does that a lot," she replied.

"Strange person," Aileen muttered.

"Eh, I'm sure he'll show up eventually," Interloper guessed. Knowing Fizz, this was pretty likely, he tended to miss the beginning of their adventures, coming in sometime later.

They walked in silence for a little bit, then entered a hallway with a glass door at the end, leading into the pool.

"We're here!" Kaurna said, running up to the door. She waved the key card in front of the lock and the door unlocked, allowing her to open it.

The rest of the group walked in after her, and the warm, humid air hit them almost instantly. The pool, directly in the center of the room, was maybe 50 feet long and 10 feet wide. Not too big, but hey, it's a hotel pool, what would you expect? The deepest it was was, surprisingly, 10 feet, much deeper than normal hotel pools. Around the pool were typical poolside chairs, and then off to the side of that was a hot tub. The far wall had a door to a sauna.

"Ah, humid, feels good." Eagle headed over to a chair and stripped his shirt off, exposing a relatively pale torso, especially compared to the rest of his body.

Interloper looked around and saw Fizz sitting on a floatie in the deep end, cane over his lap. He waved at the group.

"Hey," Interloper said.

Eagle followed his gaze. "Damn, beat us today."

"Portals, remember?"

"Oh, right."

Both Interloper and Kaurna removed their outer clothing. "Looking good," Interloper said, noticing Kaurna's suit, revealing a bit more than Aileen's, although nowhere near as much as Ash's.

"T-thanks," she stammered, blushing.

Aileen removed her shirt, set it by Eagle's, and dove into the deep end.

"Hey, wait for me!" Eagle said, jumping in after her. The cold, fresh water felt extremely refreshing, especially after coming from the humid air in the air. "Feels pretty good, huh?" he said upon surfacing.

"Come on in, the water's filled with chlorine!" Fizz said enthusiastically.

"I-isn't the deep end dangerous?!" Kaurna said, voicing her concern.

"I can swim," Eagle responded.

"As can I," said Aileen.

"Same here," Fizz called from his inner tube.

"Dude, you're using a floatie. I'd hardly count that swimming."

"He's crippled, remember?" Interloper reminded them, heading over to the shallow end of the pool.

"Oh, right." Eagle internally face-palmed.

"Hey, Kaurna," Aileen said. "I could teach you how to swim, it's really easy."

"Um…" her friend began. "I physically cannot…"

"Why not?"

"We'll sink like rocks," said Interloper.

"That doesn't sound like fun," Aileen remarked.

"I'm coming in!" shouted Ash, who sprinted over to the side of the pool and then cannonballed in. She made a surprisingly large splash for somebody of her body type.

"We'll just stick with the shallow end," Interloper said, looking at the others enjoying their ability to swim. He and Kaurna entered the shallow end and waded around.

Eagle hopped out of the pool and grabbed some diving rings. "Hey, Aileen!" he called, tossing a couple in her direction. She dove under to retrieve them, then came up a few seconds later.

Meanwhile, Interloper started making his way over to the deep end of the pool. "Kaurna, do you trust me?" he asked.

"I...yes." she responded.

"Good." With that, he held onto her, laid on his back, and floated out to the deep end. Quite surprisingly, too, as everybody looked at them with shocked expressions.

"Wha-huh?" Kaurna, surprised, gripped Interloper tighter.

"Wait, I thought you'd sink!" Eagle said.

"Didn't I tell you about my trick?" Interloper asked.

"I think you told me, but not Aileen…" Eagle scratched his chin, thinking. He then snapped his fingers. "Oh, right!"

"Levitation," Interloper finished for him.

"W-woah!" Kaurna exclaimed, the deeper they went. "My feet are not touching the bottom!"

"Yeah. Don't worry, I got you." Noticing Kaurna's tighter grip, Interloper reassured her. The two smiled at each other.

Aileen dove once more, collecting the rings again.

"Hah!" exclaimed Kaurna. "We're all in the deep end! I have never imagined that!"

"Just don't get spent, Interloper," warned Eagle. Whenever Interloper used his powers, he had a limited amount he could use before he had to "recharge." When he hit that limit, his powers simply stopped.

"It's just levitation," he replied, not taking his eyes off Kaurna. "I pretty good at telling how long I have."

"Watch my cane," Fizz said, preparing to dive. "Wouldn't want it to go off accidentally, would we?"

"Ha, nope," Aileen said, remembering the previous night.

With that, Fizz slipped off of the inner tube into the water, and sank.

Kaurna winced, but ignored the question. "You've been holding me for a while," she said to Interloper. "Am I not heavy?"

"No, you're pretty light. And I may not be a runner, but I cam lift."

Kaurna smiled and the two kissed.

"Finally, I've been shipping you two from the beginning!" Eagle declared upon seeing this spectacle.

"What?" Interloper asked, confused.

"They've been dating for a while," said Ash.

Kaurna was next. "We have kissed as well…"

"Huh, guess I'm blind then," Eagle said with a laugh.

"You need my eyes, don't you?" asked Aileen jokingly.

Kaurna looked over at them. "I can fix a pair for you!" she said enthusiastically, excited to work with electronics.

"No, no, I'm fine," Eagle replied. "Aileen had a reason to get those, like I did my arm. I mean, I doubt she'd go get an arm like mine just because."

"So, Kaurna," said Interloper, returning his attention to Kaurna. "Want to try out the hot tub?"

"Okay," she replied, and Interloper began floating back over to the shallow end, getting out of the pool and heading over to the hot tub.

"Fizz has been underwater for some time now…" Ash said, concern in her voice.

"I'm sure he's fine," said Interloper, shrugging it off. "He's magic, isn't he?"

"It's Fizz, he'll be fine," Eagle agreed. "He can't die anyways."

"You could at least show _some _concern." Ash folded her arms.

"But he can't die, why worry?"

"Ash," Interloper began. "Every time we show concern, he shuts us out. Like with his hand for example."

"He never shuts me out…except with the hand."

"Exactly," Eagle said.

"I don't know why he's hiding what happened with that."

"Hey, Aileen," Interloper called from the hot tub.

"Hmm?"

"Want to check on Fizz for us? Since you can see underwater and all with those eyes."

"Heh, why not?" She dove under the water and looked around her fake eyes being able to see perfectly fine underwater. She saw Fizz down at the bottom, just sitting there, looking up at her with an annoyed expression. She assumed he was annoyed that somebody checked on him, so she resurfaced. "He's fine," she concluded. "Looked a bit pissed, but fine."

"What's his problem?" Interloper wondered.

"Can someone help him?" Ash said, not convinced. "I don't think he can swim up."

"OH!" Aileen dove back under and grabbed Fizz who was screaming, releasing a bubbly sound. Eagle dove down, too, to help her pull him up. Together, they brought him to the surface. "I'm so sorry, Fizz!" Aileen said when they reached the top.

"WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!" He roared, coughing and sputtering.

"Sorry, didn't realize you were drowning!"

"We thought you were fine!" Interloper called.

"Yeah, we thought you were just annoyed."

"Well, now we know he was drowning…" Eagle remarked.

"Fucking idiots…" Fizz muttered, climbing back up onto his inner tube.

"Oh, sorry," Interloper said sarcastically. "We just can never tell with you!"

"You looked fine, just annoyed," Aileen protested.

"I drown a lot slower than you think," Fizz responded.

Eagle sighed. "That's a relief."

"But that doesn't mean I just want to be left down there!"

"Okay, sorry!"

Ash pushed his inner tube to the side of the pool. "I'm gonna go in the sauna," he declared, climbing off and walking over to the sauna.

"I will stay here and swim," Aileen said, diving again.

"Sauna later, Kaurna?" asked Interloper.

"Okay," she agreed with a smile.

"Oh, it's a nude sauna," Fizz said, reading the sign on the door.

"I mean, we'll have our towels on, right?" Eagle said.

"Yeah, just no bathing suits apparently." He then walked in and a few seconds later, the door opened a crack and he put his suit on a rack.

"Wait, where do we change?" Eagle asked.

"Inside I guess…" Interloper said.

"Uh, no. _Hell _no."

"Maybe there's a small place to change."

Fizz poked his head out of the sauna, apparently able to hear them through the door. "You can use the bathroom you know."

"Oh, right." Eagle internally facepalmed again.

"Just remember to bring a towel!"

"Of course!" Kaurna said. Fizz nodded and went back in. "Hmm," she wondered. "I am actually desiring to try this sauna."

"I as well," Aileen agreed.

"We should probably dip in the pool first," Interloper said. "Cool off."

"Yes!" Kaurna said, hopping out of the hot tub.

"I'm just gonna...go change," Eagle said, climbing out of the pool. He grabbed his towel and went into the bathroom.

"Oh, cold!" Kaurna exclaimed, dipping in the pool.

"Heh, yeah," agreed Interloper.

Eagle came out of the bathroom a moment later in just a towel. He set his trunks down by his shirt and turned to Aileen. "You coming? I'm not going in there alone with Fizz."

"Okay, sure, hang on." She got up and grabbed a towel herself and went to change.

"What about you, Ash?" Interloper noticed she was the only one not willing to go in.

"I'm not going in there with a towel, I'll wait until nobody's in there."

"Okay then."

"Or if only Fizz is in there," she added.

Aileen came out of the bathroom in a towel and joined Eagle. Interloper and Kaurna went into the bathroom together, coming out a moment later in towels as well.

"You sure, Ash? Towels aren't bad."

"It's no towel or nothing."

"Then be alone here…"

"Going nude in those things is invigorating!"

The four entered the sauna. The nice, warm air hit them almost instantly, surprisingly warmer than than the air in the pool room.

"Ooh, it's warm," Eagle noted.

"Yep," Fizz said.

"It's really relaxing." He leaned back on the bench. "Aaahhhhh…"

"I am feeling nice," Kaurna said, relaxing as well.

"It's great to just...relax," said Interloper.

"I'm as close to being relaxed as I could be." Fizz said back.

"Wait, you're not relaxed?"

"Nope, but I'm pretty close."

"Honestly, I think Ash is missing out."

"Heh, yeah," Aileen agreed.

"She is stubborn," Kaurna said.

"Says the girl who didn't want to admit she was bi," Interloper muttered.

"What did you say?!"

"N-nothing!"

"Hmph!"

"Heh, nice," Fizz snickered.

"I...am willing to admit it...now."

"Well, that's good," Interloper declared.

"It does not mean I am wanting a girl though. I have Inty!"

"Ha, yeah."

Fizz scoffed and tried not to laugh.

"What?" Interloper said.

"Sorry, it's just that nickname is _sooo _bad."

"Well, I didn't pick it."

"It's better than Josie," Eagle said.

"What if we gave _you _a terrible nickname, Fizz?"

"Fizzy-wizzy!"

"Ha!"

"Yeah," Karuna agreed. That _was _a pretty bad nickname.

"Uh, Ash already calls me that."

"So that's your nickname," Interloper said, holding back laughter.

"I would call him something else," Kaurna said to Interloper.

"What?"

She whispered in his ear. Interloper's eyes widened ever-so-slightly.

"Uh, yeah, I wouldn't repeat that outloud."

"What did she say?" Eagle asked, ignoring Interloper's suggestion.

"Not telling!" Kaurna said.

"Say it," Fizz urged. "Say it to my fuckin' face."

"It was a joke!"

"Say it, or I'll lock us in here."

"Bluff!"

"Fizz, if you do that, we'll shrivel and die." Eagle crossed his arms.

"You will, not me."

"I'll just teleport me and Kaurna out!" Interloper shot back.

"Have you ever tried doing magic in a sauna?"

"No…"

"It's impossible to focus."

"Oh, I can focus." He concentrated for a second, but nothing happened. "Damn…"

"I don't need to," Eagle said, snapping his fingers. A portal appeared on the bench beside him. "See, this is mechanical."

"Oh yeah, he's got tech."

"Works just fine." He snapped again, closing it. "Checkmate."

"You got anything, Fizz?"

Fizz snapped his fingers and Eagle's arm fell limp.

"The fuck, why? I'm useless now! I can't do a damned thing, that's my dominant arm!"

"That's the point." Fizz turned to Kaurna. "Now SAY IT!"

"Kaurna…" Interloper said.

"Why do this?!" Kaurna cried.

"Because I don't like secrets!" Fizz shouted.

"Liar! You keep secrets from us all the time!"

"Fine. I hate secrets being kept from me. How's that?"

"Fuckhead," she muttered.

"Hmph. You guys think I'm evil, how about I show you just how evil I can be?"

"Uh, I suggest not doing that," Interloper said, eyes wider. "Also, that was Kaurna's nickname for you."

"Yes."

Fizz walked over to the door and opened it a crack. "ASH!"

"Fizz, I called you 'fuckhead' because you disappear randomly, do not tell us, and shut us out when we are concerned! Like a fuckhead!"

"I mean, she's not wrong," Aileen commented.

"Alright, fine, wanna know what happened to my hand?" Fizz held his hand up with an annoyed expression.

"Uh, yes," Eagle replied.

"I punched the lobby wall in anger, happy?"

"Why?" Interloper and Kaurna said at the same time. "Why do that? Why were you angry?" Kaurna continued.

"You asked for the what, not the why."

"I just asked the why…"

Just then, the door opened a bit, and Ash stuck her head in. "You need me?"

Fizz stepped outside with her, and the others watched out the window on the door.

"Uh, Fizz-" Interloper started, but was cut off by him portalling away with Ash. "Hey! Fuck! Fuckhead was right…"

"Where the hell did he go?" Eagle wondered aloud.

"Who cares? He wants to shut us out so bad, let him." He sighed loudly. "Want to get your suit on and head back to the hot tub, Kaurna?"

"Uh, sure." The two left to change.

"I think we should go too, we'll shrivel up." Aileen got up to leave.

"My arm." Eagle said.

"What about it?"

"My arm. Is still. Broken."

"Oh, right…"

"I can't do a thing because Fizz fucking left!"

"Well, uh, meet us outside whenever you're ready." She left too, taking the bathroom when Interloper and Kaurna were done, who both went back to the hot tub.

When Aileen came out of the bathroom, back in her suit, Eagle was _still _in the sauna. She walked over to the door. "Josiah, come on, get out already!" She knocked on the door. "Yoohoo?"

"What?"

"Get out!"

"I can't hold my towel and open the door at the same time! And I'm sure you don't want that!"

"Fine, I'll open it for you." She opened the door, revealing Eagle on the other side holding his towel up with one hand, other arm still limp at his side.

"Okay, I'll go change the best I can…" He walked off to the bathroom, grabbing his trunks along the way.

"Ugh, if only I could enjoy myself at the moment," Interloper said, still annoyed with Fizz's sudden disappearance.

"How about kissing?" Kaurna suggested with a smile.

"Okay…"

At that moment, Ngyes poofed back into existence, interrupting Interloper and Kaurna's makeout session.

"Hm?" Interloper said, looking over. "Of course, he misses out on everything." The two went right back to kissing.

"Okay then…" Ngyes said, slightly uncomfortable from the display.

"O-oh!" Kaurna said, breaking apart. "Hello, Ngyes!"

"Hey, where have you been?" Aileen asked.

"Don't know…" he replied, scratching his head. "Sometimes, I just spontaneously disap-" He vanished, doing exactly as he had just said.

At that moment, Eagle came back out from the bathroom. He plopped down in a chair and sat there, quite pissed. If he ever had hated Fizz before, it was then. "That was hard," he muttered, glaring around the room.

"Hi Eagle!" Kaurna cheerfully said from the hot tub, waving. She then returned to her business with Interloper.

"Ugh, gotta get this arm fixed. I'm useless now."

"-pear." Ngyes said, reappearing next to Eagle, finishing his cut-off from earlier.

"Well, that happened again," Eagle said after jumping back slightly in surprise.

Ngyes noticed his cybernetic arm hanging limply at his side. "Damn, what happened?"

"Fizz. Fucking Fizz."

"Of course."

"Yep. And now I can't do anything."

"One day, I'm gonna take his cane and fucking snap it."

"Yes!" Kaurna agreed, shouting over at them. "Do that!"

"Dude, he'll murder you," Eagle joked.

"Meh, small price to pay," Ngyes said with a grin.

"Murder him back," Interloper suggested.

Eagle turned towards the hot tub. "Kaurna!"

"What?"

"Could you take a look at my arm later, maybe fix it?"

"Oh, I can do that now!" She let Interloper go and walked over.

"Wait, wha-oh," Interloper said, disappointed their kissing party ended.

"Sorry, man," Eagle apologized.

"Eel-blocker!"

"Oh, here, hang on," Eagle said when Kaurna began looking at his arm. He released a few clips and pulled the green plastic cover off, revealing the inside, where all the electronic and hydraulic components were. "There, now you can see the inside."

"Okay then…" She began poking around.

"Well, while you're doing that," Ngyes said, pulling out an inflatable raft and filling it. He threw it into the pool and jumped on.

"Just be careful, Ngyes!" Aileen said, worried he'd fall in. The last time he came into contact with water hadn't ended well. In response, he simply shrugged.

"Yeah, we don't have any jars on us," Interloper said, crossing his arms.

"I'll be fine," Ngyes reassured them.

"Whatever you say," Aileen sighed.

"I installed a spawn point in my bag."

"Oh, cool!" replied Interloper.

"Should be working now," Kaurna said, removing her hands from the arm.

Eagle flexed it to give it a test and it worked perfectly. Instantly, his face lit up. "Yup, thanks!"

"Welcome!"

"Tech. Fucking. Genius." said Interloper, beaming.

"Yeah, she is," Eagle replied.

Ngyes, the racist he is, was not pleased with their praise of the Octoling. "Okay, we get it," he snapped.

"Aw shucks!" Kaurna said, earning her some confused looks from everybody.

"Shucks?" Eagle commented. "Haven't hear that in a while…" He trailed off and shuddered slightly.

"Is it not fresh word?"

"No," Interloper said.

"O-oh…"

"N-no, it's not that," Eagle said, looking down at the ground. "Triggers bad memories from the farm."

"What memories?"

"It's a _long _story. Like, covering five years long."

"Really?"

"Like a corn shuck?" Ngyes said.

"Yeah, it's long," replied Eagle. "And yeah, like a corn shuck."

"Well, at least you'll tell us," Interloper said, dipping back into the pool.

"Y-yeah, eventually."

"Don't push too much, guys," Aileen said with a look of...fear? Sadness? Something like that. "They're pretty bad memories, could send him into a mental breakdown…" She shuddered as well, memories filling her head.

"That puts you ahead of Fuckhead now," Kaurna mentioned.

"You call Fizz 'Fuckhead' now?" Interloper asked.

"Might as well."

"Want to try the sauna again?" Interloper asked the group. "No Fizz this time."

"Sure," Kaurna agreed, hopping out to change. Interloper followed.

"What about you guys?"

"Eh, might as well," Eagle said, picking his towel back up. "I can move my arm now, so changing's easier."

"Yeah, we'll go in again," Aileen agreed, following him.

"I'll probably slowly die in there," Ngyes said, in quid form and spinning on the raft. "So…"

"Yeah, probably for the best you stay out here," agreed Interloper, heading into the bathroom with Kaurna. A moment later, the two left, and Aileen went in, alone. She and Eagle, although progressing through their relationship, still weren't ready to see each other without clothing on. Even though Aileen wouldn't admit that she secretly did want more.

After her, it was Eagle's turn, and then they entered the sauna, the warm air refreshing them once again.

"Still pretty nice," Interloper said, sitting down. Karuna sat right next to him.

"Yeah," Eagle said, sitting down as well.

"Aaahh, nice to relax again," Aileen said, sitting on Eagle's lap. Nobody questioned it, but Eagle's eyes went a bit wider. "Seriously, why not we do this more often, Josiah? There _has _to be a sauna somewhere in our Inkopolis."

"Yeah, I dunno."

"Possibly," agreed Kaurna.

"Yeah, wouldn't surprise me. Probably at a rec center."

"I will check when we arrive home." She then turned to Interloper. "So you have Fizz-like powers?"

"Actually, I have more than him."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, many more. But I burn them out quickly."

"Ah," Aileen exclaimed.

"But I'm nearing his level. Heck, if anything, I prefer having less powers."

"Seriously, Josiah," Aileen grumbled. "Why do you hang out with him?"

"Yeah! He threatens to lock us in here!"

"He doesn't care about anybody but himself!"

"His life is just hard, okay?" Eagle responded, attempting to defend Fizz. "He's been through a lot."

"He's not usually this big of an asshole about it," returned Interloper.

"Probably got really pissed off by that comment then."

"He locked us in here because we wouldn't tell him what we said! And Kaurna's right, he's a fuckhead!"

"A true fuckhead," she agreed.

"Just give him time," sighed Eagle. "Look, it's what I have to do with Eight back home. If anything, she's a bigger dick than he is."

"Time? TIME? He seems to get worse with time."

"Maybe it's because he's getting close to Sarah's death, I dunno."

"He claims it's not inevitable, but his actions show otherwise. And we do try to comfort him, but when we ask what's wrong, he shuts us out."

"From what I've seen," Aileen said. "He cares about himself, but doesn't want to tell us everything."

"But yet he does not like when we do the same," Kaurna added. "Hypocrite."

"Anyways, I'm done with this, I'm gonna go hop in the hot tub." Aileen got up and walked out, leaving the other three alone.

"You should probably tell her to get in the pool to cool off first," said Interloper to Eagle.

"Yeah, good idea," Eagle responded, then left the sauna.

The two sat in silence for a moment. Then Kaurna spoke up.

"Hey," she said.

"Yeah?"

"Do you believe what Ash said about the sauna is true?"

"The...naked part?"

"Y-yes…"

"Hmm, not sure."

"Do you...wish to try?"

Interloper paused a long moment. "Okay…"

Back outside, Eagle walked up to the bathroom door and pounded on it. Ngyes was nowhere to be seen, so he assumed he had disappeared again.

"Aileen!" he called. "You should cool off in the pool before going back into the hot tub!"

"Oh, yeah, probably should," her muffled voice responded from the other side. A moment later, she exited the bathroom in her swimsuit.

"Just a sec." With that, Eagle changed really quick, and then the two headed over to the pool. They dipped in and instantly Aileen let out a loud gasp.

"It's so cold!" she exclaimed.

"Well yeah, we just got out of the sauna, of course it's gonna be cold."

They swam around a bit, getting a feel for the colder water, and then Eagle got out to go sink into the hot tub.

"Oh, this feels nice," he said upon entry, sitting down.

"Hey, wait for me!" Aileen called, and ran over. She hopped in and felt the warm water surround her. "Oooohhh, you're right!"

The two sat back and relaxed, enjoying the hot water.

Soon, Ash stumbled into the pool room, a stupid grin plastered on her face.

"Oh, hi Ash," greeted Aileen with a wave.

"You know where Fizz went?" Eagle asked.

She ignored them and walked over to the sauna, throwing open the door.

"GAH!" Interloper yelled, covering himself up with his towel.

Kaurna did the same, screaming "OH COD!"

Ash turned a deep red color. "S-sorry, I'm still a bit...out of it."

"Why?" Interloper asked. "What happened to Fuckhead?"

"He just gave me the _roughest _sex I've ever had. Somebody must've _really _pissed him off."

"He locked us in the sauna and we pissed _him _off?!"

Kaurna stood up, ensuring her towel was secure, embarrassed by Ash's storming in. "Fucking knock!"

"Sorry!"

"The fuck was that, Ash?" Eagle called.

"They were naked in there," she responded, exiting the sauna.

"Oh…" said Aileen, surprised. "Doesn't sound like them at all."

That moment, Interloper came out wearing his towel, completely red in the face. "Whatever she says, don't believe it! It's not true!"

"Uh-huh…"

Kaurna followed him closely, covering her face with her hands.

"Why is she covering her face then?" Eagle demanded.

Interloper stood there, stuttering for a moment, and then cleared his throat. "S-so, Ash, w-where is Fuckhead?"

"Oh, don't avoid the question!" Aileen protested.

"We had tested Ash's theory, okay?!" Kaurna yelled.

"Okay, look," said Ash. "I need the sauna, Fizz is up in the room if you need to talk to him."

"Why do you need the sauna?" inquired Interloper.

"Because I need to destress my muscles."

"O...kay…"

"Just go with it," Aileen said, not wanting to continue the topic.

Interloper sighed. "Alright, let's talk to him. He fucking owes me one…"

"Okay then, let's go." Eagle got out of the hot tub to dry off, Aileen doing the same. Interloper and Kaurna changed quickly and then continued upstairs to the room with the rest of the group. Ash slipped into the sauna the moment they were gone.

"So...what do we say?" Aileen asked.

"Do you even think he'd listen?" wondered Kaurna.

"Nope, doubt it," Interloper sighed.

"Yeah," agreed Eagle. "Not a fucking chance."

"He locked _us _in the sauna! And we pissed _him _off?! Fucking figures, he gets laid again and I get eel-blocked." They arrived at the room. "But we'll try anyways." He knocked on the door. "Fizz, open up, we need to talk."

**AN: **Wow, was that a long one. If you were anxiously waiting for the next chapter, sorry it took so long. And honestly, I feel as if this chapter is really just a huge fucking mess if anything. Do you have any clue how hard it is to have _seven _different characters at once?

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it regardless. And I attempted to add some descriptions and more content rather than just dialogue, in an attempt to follow up with that review. I feel as if it made this a lot more bloated, but tell us in the review section what you think and I at least will try to keep it up if you liked it.

We'll see you next entry, whenever that is. Hopefully by the end of the century.


	14. The talk

**I finished it, woot. Now back to procrastinating on the story I'm supposed to be writing.**

Eagle bangs on the door of the hotel room.

"Fizz, open the damn door already!"

Fizz groans loudly before the door is opened.

Alieen huffs at him.

"It's not only your room."

Eagle pushes Alieen back a bit and gives Fizz a quizzical look.

"Come on, man, what's bugging you? You haven't been yourself today."

Interloper rolls his eyes and grumbles.

"Seems in-character to me..."

Eagle turns to him and waves him off.

"Not really, he doesn't storm off like that."

Fizz rubs his eyes and steps away from the door.

"Just... Come in..."

Interloper enters the room and stands by one of the beds.

Eagle walks in and hops on his bed.

"You good?"

Fizz glares at him.

"No, and you should know that already."

Eagle raises his hands up defensively.

"Hey, just asking."

Interloper sits next to eagle, gesturing for Kaurna to do the same.

"If I had to guess, it's Sarah-related?"

Kaurna nudges him.

"Straight to point, huh?"

"I figured it must be."

Alieen shrugs.

"It's very blunt."

Fizz lies back and sets his cane down.

"It's a lot of things, although Sarah is a big part of it."

Eagle nods.

"Well, what can we do?"

Alieen makes a noise of approval.

"There has to be something."

Interloper points at Fizz.

"And don't shut us out this time."

Eagle chimes in.

"Please."

Fizz sits back up and groans.

"You guys can't do anything, although I would prefer it if you stopped calling me evil."

Interloper frowns.

"I don't call you evil..."

Kaurna points to the cane with a somewhat worried look on her face. "I only called the cane evil."

Alieen scratches her head and sighs. "I did once…"

Eagle hisses through his teeth. "Not. Helping."

"Sorry, just proving his point."

Fizz nods and points to Kaurna with an annoyed look.

"I would also prefer it if you didn't call me fuckhead."

Kaurna is about to say something, but Interloper interrupts her.

"Alright, we'll apologize for that. IF...you promise to stop acting like one."

Eagle puts his head in his hands.

"This is not what I was hoping for."

Interloper scoffs.

"Well, he does some dumb shit."

"We all do!"

"And he rarely, if ever, apologizes."

"But what do you expect from him?"

Interloper pays that question no mind and continues.

"And he locked us in a room because we kept one secret from him."

Fizz cuts in.

"I don't usually do stuff like that..."

Interloper still doesn't stop.

"But he can keep all the secrets he wants from us! Fizz, if you want us to trust you, you need to trust us."

Eagle starts to argue back, when Alieen slaps a hand over his mouth.

"Fizz, I'm not sure what kind of a person you really are, but from what I know, I certainly don't want Josiah around you for these reasons."

Kaurna points to the cane again.

"Darting for starts."

Alieen nods in agreement.

"What she said. You also gave him beer."

Eagle moves Alieen's hand.

"That was all my fault, okay?"

"Still, he went along with it. Encouraged it even."

Fizz picks up the cane and looks it over, causing Kaurna to scoot torwards Interloper a bit.

"I try to save the darts for a last resort, and the drinking was out of hand, granted-"

He's cut off by Kaurna shouting in his face.

"You shot me after fight ended! And when we were getting service menu!"

Fizz puts the cane down and does a finger gun motion at her.

"Fight to win, that's what you said."

Kaurna growls.

"Fight was over!"

Alieen puts a hand on kaurna's shoulder and sighs.

"The service menu, that was too far."

Fizz gestures to himself and Eagle.

"You were gonna ruin our fun! Besides, they went along with it."

"Maybe, but a last resort? Really?"

Interloper grumbles.

"Fun being code for the road to cheating..."

"You're one to talk!" Fizz retorts.

Aileen turns to Eagle.

Interloper throws his hands up as Kaurna gives him a funny look.

"I did not participate!"

Alieen stares at Eagle.

"You went along with it?"

Fizz rolls his eyes and stands up again.

"I didn't mean then."

Eagle stutters when Alieen turns back to Fizz.

"Are you kidding me?! Then when did you mean, huh?"

Fizz rolls his eyes and lazily gestures to Interloper.

"I was talking to him."

Interloper grows confused.

"When, then?"

Fizz scoffs.

"At the mall? You did an awful lot of staring at Ash after all."

Interloper sweats a bit and turns away from Kaurna, who frowns.

"You did indeed..."

"C-can you blame me?! She wore almost nothing!"

Kaurna blushes a bit.

"At least you had faint at me..."

Interloper blushes with her.

"Y-yeah..."

Eagle waves his hand at them and stands up to face Fizz.

"Still, that's off topic. Fizz, would you stop shutting us out? That's what we wanted to talk about."

"Do you want to hear about every problem I have?"

Eagle pokes his chest.

"Yes, frankly, we do!"

Interloper gets up and pulls Eagle back.

"It doesn't have to be every problem, but the major ones we need to hear."

Eagle pulls his arm out of Interloper's grasp.

"We care about you, why would we not want to hear about your problems?"

Fizz taps his cane on the ground.

"Because there are so many, and that kind of puts a damper on things."

Eagle sighs and sits back down.

"At least do what Interloper said and tell us the major ones."

Fizz holds out a hand and starts counting fingers.

"Abandonment issues, nightmares, looming threat of my fiance's death, immense guilt, is that enough for you?"

Interloper gives a somewhat guilty look.

"...Kind of..."

Eagle looks confused.

"Guilt of what, killing people? Because yes, that is quite enough."

Interloper sits back down as well.

"Which one's on your mind now?"

Fizz flops back onto the bed.

"The guilt, particularly."

Eagle gestures his hand in a circular motion.

"Guilt for...? We need answers if you want us to help."

Fizz sighs.

"...That would take a lot of explaining. The bottom line is I accidentally got someone killed and it's coming back for me."

Eagle groans.

"Oh, that's wonderful!"

Interloper slaps him lightly.

"Who was it?"

Eagle pushes Interloper a bit.

"I thought you already dealt with that?"

Fizz spins his cane.

"Terry, guy I knew way back..."

Interloper hums.

"Never heard of him..."

Eagle looks up in thought.

"I heard he died in a duel."

"Oh, that guy?"

"Fizz, were you a second?"

"A second?"

"For the duel."

"Not sure what that is..."

Fizz shushes them.

"No, but I apparently was the cause."

Interloper scoots forward.

"How so?"

"I accidentally got the two fighting again."

"Oh..."

Eagle scoffs.

"And this is biting you how?"

Alieen cuts him off.

"The girl found out and now she's extremely pissed?"

"Yep."

Interloper shrugs.

"Well, she doesn't exist in this universe, right?"

Eagle nods.

"You're safe here, or should be."

"Unless she is getting back at him in other ways..."

Eagle winces.

"That wouldn't be good..."

Fizz takes a drink of water.

"I allowed Terry to visit back after I found him here. It just kinda... Hit me I guess."

Interloper holds his hand out for him to stop.

"Wait, if you allowed him to see her, why's she mad at you? You reunited them...right?"

Eagle nods I agreement.

"Yeah... They should be happy."

"I had to pull him back here, universe laws and whatnot."

Alieen snaps.

"Then pull her here! If we can be here, can't she?"

Fizz scoffs.

"She can't just disappear from my universe like that. I allowed visits, but that's all I could do."

Alieen points to him in confusion.

"But you do..."

Eagle gestures to the rest of them.

"And so do we."

Fizz waves them off.

"No one cares if I go missing, everyone just assumes I'm off somewhere."

"But what about us?"

"And you two aren't staying here every night."

"Uh, yeah we are. Well, not every night..."

Interloper nods.

"Pretty much..."

Eagle motions to his bags.

"For this trip we are, at least."

"It can't be permanent, is what I'm saying."

Interloper puts a hand on his head.

"...But how is she causing trouble for you? Is she trying to kill you? Because...well...you know..."

Fizz shakes his head.

"No, she triggered my guilt. It happens sometimes."

"Ah..."

Eagle gives him a smile.

"Don't be guilty, you didn't know they'd have a duel, right?"

Interloper seems even more confused.

"What were they even fighting about? How were you involved?"

Fizz grinds his teeth a bit.

"Long story... And he sent me a letter before he died that said it was my fault."

Eagle frowns.

"He sent a letter?"

Interloper continues his line of questions.

"How'd you get them fighting again?"

"Reminded him of how much of an egomaniac she had been. He just... Got up and walked away. Next thing I knew, he was dead."

Eagle stares in surprise and Interloper sighs.

"Fizz, just let it go. What's done is done."

Eagle nods.

"There is nothing you can do about it, so stop dwelling in the past."

Fizz shakes his head.

"Easy for you to say..."

Interloper takes a deep breath.

"We all have regrets, Fizz... Things we wish we could change... But reality is we can't."

Alieen nods.

"Believe me, there is plenty I wish to erase from my past. What you think was a good childhood never really was. Not only that, but I did some pretty bad stuff in the army before Josiah saved me from the hypnosis."

Interloper sighs.

"And I haven't gone by my real name in years... I'm called an Interloper for a reason..."

Fizz smirks a bit and sits up fully.

"And what reason is that, since we're sharing?"

Interloper goes silent as all eyes on the room fall on him.

Eagle nudges him.

"Come on..."

Kaurna looks at him with a curious look.

"Inty?"

He sighs.

Eagle crosses his arms.

"Look, Fizz told all his shit, now it's your turn."

Interloper huffs.

"Well, look at it this way... You know how I have these powers? That I burnt out?"

"Yeah...?"

"How do you think I got them? Any guesses?"

Eagle thinks for a moment.

"A freak accident or something? The typical story for this?"

Interloper shrugs.

"Truth is...fuck if I know. They just showed up one day. Suddenly, I have powers I can't explain, nor know how I got them... Then, suddenly, you may cause something bad to happen, and make it worse trying to fix it, to the point where everyone's afraid of you, so you just...leave... So I left my original universe..."

Alieen nods.

"I've been discriminated against just because I'm an Octoling, I can understand part of where you're coming from."

Fizz looks at his cane.

"I'm getting to that point, I think. I have a lot of people afraid of me after the robot attack became public."

Eagle hums.

"Yeah, that makes sense... But they don't know the real you."

Interloper continues.

"Well, long story short, I travelled through several universes, trying to find a place I belonged, but never did...I never belonged...nor was I wanted...I was just that...an interloper... It got to the point where I stopped trying to hide it... I eventually started interacting with this one universe...a lot... But I never interacted with its people... At least...not in a way they'd remember..."

Kaurna hugs him.

"So yeah, I have trust issues too..."

Fizz gives him an understanding look.

"You and I have a lot more in common then I thought."

"Yeah, except you have friends in your world... You guys... You're all I've really got..."

Eagle playfully shoves him.

"Isn't that better than nothing, though?"

Interloper sighs.

"Yeah... I just...cared less after a while..."

Fizz scoffs.

"It's better than having a hundred enemies, that's for sure."

Eagle glares at Fizz.

"Look, I know Fizz isn't optimistic, but I am. I look at things brightly. I know that it may be bad, but it can get better."

Interloper smiles.

"If anything, I felt more alive after first burning out my powers after my argument with Fizz."

Fizz nods.

"You're welcome, I think..."

"There we go, there's a bright side to that!"

Interloper looks at his hands.

"Well, I'll just keep these powers under control for now... Too much and I may do something stupid again..."

Eagle high fives one of his hands, earning a blank stare from Interloper.

"Yeah, but you know your limits, that's good."

Kaurna, who hasn't stopped hugging Interloper this whole time, squeezes him.

"Yes!"

Fizz finger guns him.

"It helps having other people with powers around."

Interloper smiles back at him.

"I guess it does..."

Fizz takes another drink and tilts the glass to him.

"I can do more than I let on... But that's not important."

Interloper chuckles.

"You think that's weird, Kaurna's the first person in a while who knows my actual name..."

"I am?"

"Yes..."

Eagle laughs.

I don't think that's wierd because of some of the shit I've seen with you guys.

Kaurna giggles.

"I still say inty!"

She hugs him even tighter.

Eagle rolls his eyes and chuckles.

"Yes, you do."

Fizz leans back a bit.

"It must be nice..."

Eagle turns back to him.

"What, having somebody?"

Fizz nods.

"As energetic as her, yes."

"Oh, yeah, I bet it is."

Alieen flicks eagle's ear.

"Hey, what about me?"

"Nothing, you're fine!"

Fizz snickers.

"You're not as energetic as kaurna, basically."

Interloper smirks.

"Oh yeah, she ran all around town... And wasn't exausted just yet..."

Kaurna giggles.

"Really good stamina!"

"Yeah..."

Alieen nods.

"I wasn't too exhausted, but cod, that girl can run!"

Kaurna smiles happily.

"I practice every day!"

Interloper bites his lip a bit.

"And it shows..."

Alieen chuckles a bit.

"I can tell."

"Aileen, if you did that daily..."

"Hey, it's kinda hard when you're trying to overthrow a government, okay?"

Interloper turns back to Fizz

"...Speaking of stamina and energetic... I'm guessing a certain someone is feeling less so? And the situation doesn't seem to be getting better, Fizz?"

Fizz sighs.

"No, not at all. I checked on her last night, she could barely move."

Eagle stares at him in surprise.

"Oh, fuck... That's... Wow..."

"And Zoey's solution?"

Fizz shakes his head.

"She's going as fast as she can, but..."

Eagle nods slowly.

"It's not...fast enough."

"How long does she have?"

Fizz shrugs.

"I don't know."

Interloper goes silent.

"Well then... I'm not sure how much saying 'I hope she'll pull through' will accomplish... Other than some emotional support..."

Fizz scoffs.

"Which won't work anyway..."

Interloper slides over and sits next to Fizz, leaving a disappointed Kaurna.

"Situation's seeming more hopeless, huh? Can't say I have any ideas... All I can do is send her my best wishes... And hope for the best..."

Eagle nods.

"Yeah, same. I'm surprised you care so much."

"She's his fiance, so yeah..."

Eagle winces.

"Oh, wow..."

"Heck, it was pure luck she was brought back at all..."

Eagle scratches his head.

"Yeah, although I'm sure her staying like that would've been better for his emotional state."

"Can't say for certain...Fizz?"

Eagle scoffs.

"Look, he nearly killed himself the first time, what do you think he'll do next?"

Interloper shakes his head.

"He can't even do that..."

Eagle throws his arms up.

"Fucking... But there is no bright side here! It's just...nothing... Sad..."

Fizz looks down in sadness.

"Augh, I can't take it!"

"Josiah, calm down-"

"You want me to calm down? This is my friend we're talking about here, who's going through an extremely hard time, and you want me to fucking calm down? Fine!"

He storms off

"Josiah! Come on! ...Sorry about that, guys."

Interloper nods.

"It's fine..."

Alieen stands up and starts after him.

"When he gets worked up, he tends to just...snap."

"I see..."

"Don't even know where he's going... I need to go after him. Don't know what he'll do."

Interloper nods while Fizz continues to be silent.

"I'll be seeing you two then, sometime later..."

"Bye..."

Alieen leaves the room.

Interloper shakes his head before turning back to Fizz.

"Sorry if we weren't any help, Fizz..."

Fizz shrugs.

"It's fine, I haven't been in my right mind for years anyway."

Interloper pats his shoulder, and Kaurna speaks up.

"If we can do anything to help, fizz, we are willing to..."

Fizz nods.

"I know, but there's nothing you can really do."

"Well, anything to help you feel better..."

Fizz smiles a bit.

"Go enjoy your night, that's enough for me. ...Maybe we can go out tomorrow? To the town?"

Interloper nods.

"Okay."

They both get up and walk to the door.

"Hey Fizz?"

Fizz turns to them.

Interloper gives him a playful slap to the forehead.

"That's for indirectly Eel-blocking me."

Fizz chuckles.

"Just go and fuck her already, it's the perfect time to."

Interloper's face gets red.

"H-how about we head back to the pool?"

"S-sure thing, Kaurna... Bye Fizz."

"Bye."

Interloper and Kaurna walk out and close the door.

They head back to the pool area.

"So...you think things will get better?"

"I am uncertain... But for now, let us have some time to enjoy ourselves."

"Heh...alright..."

Kaurna smirks and pulls Interloper into the sauna.


	15. Friendship issues

**Hey, guys! EagleByte here again. Right when the stuff happened in the previous chapter, I knew instantly what I needed to make to go along with it. Here it is, another interlude! Enjoy it, I certainly liked showing a new side to my characters.**

Eagle stormed out the front of the hotel. Where he was heading, he could care less. He'd had enough, he was through with this place.

His current trajectory put him on the path of leaving Polixia, the small town they were currently staying in. 'Anywhere,' he thought, 'would be better than here right now.' He just kept walking, thoughts of how much of a failure his time in the Shared Universe had been, how much he regretted stumbling through the portal, how much he'd rather be home making progress against the Octarians in control of his city.

After a while, he heard footsteps running up to him. He knew who it was, one, because he recognized how Aileen ran, and second because who else would be running after him?

"The fuck do you want, Aileen?" he snapped as she ran up.

She shrunk back in surprise. "I-"

"What, came to calm me down? Maybe make me come back?"

"What do you think?"

Eagle sighed. "No, I'm not. I'm done with this place."

Aileen stared at him in shock. "You what?"

"Aileen, I can't stand it anymore. This hasn't been anything for me but trouble, and you know that."

"Yeah, it's been bad sometimes, but think of the kind of escape we get from our normal life here!"

"You mean the escape where Fizz and Kaurna fight each other in the Square? The escape where I get super drunk at a party? The escape where we get locked in a damn sauna because Kaurna won't say out loud what she called Fizz?" Aileen opened her mouth to retort, but he cut her off. "Yeah, some escape that is," he scoffed.

Aileen frowns at him. "What happened to the bright side you were talking about earlier? I thought you were an optimist."

"I am, but there is no bright side here right now! What Fizz is going through is harder than anything I can think of! His girlfriend, no, his _fiancee, _who already died once, is dying again as we speak."

"Yes, but-"

"I'm not finished yet. Do you know what happened the first time Sarah died? Do you?"

"No."

"He tried to kill himself. But, oh look, he can't die. So now what's stopping him from killing one of us in his blinded rage when she dies? I say when because _it's going to happen."_

"Josiah, please. This isn't like you!"

"I know it's not like me, Aileen! That's why I'm freaking out right now!"

"Just calm down, please."

Eagle turned and grabbed her shoulders, tears forming in his eyes. "What if he does snap, Aileen? What if he snaps and kills one of us? And what if it's you?!"

Aileen sighed. "I can handle myself, you know. And maybe he will snap, I don't know. But I can assure you worrying about that isn't going to do anything!"

"Yeah, and not expecting it and it suddenly happening isn't either." He let go of her and snapped his fingers, a black portal opening behind him. "We're going home. We're never coming back, it's not safe for us here anymore. It never was, and it never will be." He began to walk through the portal.

"Josiah, come back here right now. If you take one more step through that portal, I will never forgive you." He stopped and glared at her. "Look, there's something going on here. I think that you were meant to find that portal in your backyard, that you were meant to stumble upon this place. You and I have made new friends here, it's added a place for us to go and relax from our real world. And yeah, it can be kinda shitty sometimes, I get it. But think of the experiences you've had here, think of the friends you've made. All that you'd throw away over a risk of one of us dying? Remember that we're at a higher risk of dying back home than we are here!"

"Aileen, please listen-"

"No, you listen to me. I'm staying here, you're staying here. You're not just abandoning your friends. You hear me?"

Eagle sighed. "Fine." Aileen let out a small cheer. "BUT I decide when we go home. If it goes bad and I see the need to go home and never return, we are. Deal?"

Aileen smiled. "Deal."

Eagle walks back onto the street and shut the portal down. He turned back to Aileen, who reached her hand out. He gave a small grin and took it.

"Well, back to the hotel then?" Aileen asked.

"Yeah, probably should. Those guys must be wondering where I went."

The two began walking back to the hotel, smiling at each other.


	16. A day on the town

**A day on the town - Transcribed and written by TheRandomInterloper.**

The Next Day…

Interloper, Fizz, Eagle, and Aileen decided to head to town the next day. Kaurna decided to stay in the hotel after her daily run because she wanted to relax, having a coupon for a nearby spa later. Ash decided to stay as well, still feeling sore after her night with Fizz. Ngyes disappeared as he tends to do.

"Well, should we look at the map and see what we want to do?" Aileen asked.

"Right!" Interloper looked at the map.

"Man, without Kaurna, this seems like it'll be kinda bland…" Eagle sighed. "She's so energetic."

"Or Ash, with her sexual remarks…" Fizz lamented.

"Yeah." Eagle admitted.

"Eh, Kaurna wouldn't want to be around that anyway." Interloper shrugged. "Oh, I think I found something! There's a mall over here…maybe there'll be some cool stuff to buy."

"Haven't gone shopping in a while." Aileen said. "I'm game."

"Of course you are…" Eagle rolled his eyes. "Meh, whatever…sounds interesting."

They then started walking.

Fizz then took a different kind of pill from the usual ones for his leg.

"What pills are those?" Interloper asked.

"Antidepressants." Fizz told them. "Ash whipped them up for me after last night. They seem to work. At least enough to make a difference."

"Sorry about storming out last night…" Eagle scratched the back of his neck. "That was…yeah…"

"It's fine." Fizz assured him. "Let's keep moving."

"To the mall!" Interloper shouted as he took the lead.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the mall.

"What kind of stuff do you think they have?" Aileen wondered.

"Not sure…" Interloper scratched his chin. "There's bound to be plenty of stores…"

"I don't really need anything." Fizz shrugged.

"How about some stickers for your cane?" Interloper suggested.

Fizz stared blankly at him.

"Come on, Fizz." Inteloper urged him. "Pimp out your cane!"

Fizz decided not to dignify that with a response.

"Alrighty!" Interloper decided to change the subject. "Which store first though…"

"Clothes!" Aileen shouted.

"You have plenty of those…" Eagle rolled his eyes.

"I could use a new bandanna though…" Interloper admitted as he started to walk in.

"What's wrong with your current one?" Eagle wondered.

"Maybe a new Jacket…" Fizz guessed.

"And I'll get some new shoes!" Aileen excitedly ran into the shoe store.

"Oh, great…" Eagle groaned.

15 Minutes Later…

Shortly after, Eagle was waiting on the benches for everyone else.

"I got a new bandanna!" Interloper shouted, wearing a bandanna that looked exactly like his old one.

"Why did you even need that?" Eagle was more confused now.

"Man, their jacket selection was garbage…" Fizz sighed as he walked out.

"This mall is great! I already love it!" Aileen shouted as she carried two shoe boxes.

"I'll bet." Interloper nodded his head.

"Well, I'm kinda hungry." Eagle looked around and pointed out a donut shop.

"Aren't you always?" Aileen quipped.

"Same…" Interloper agreed, heading in first.

Eagle and Aileen went in shortly after while Fizz just shrugged and wandered off.

"Uh…no, sir…I'm not trying to rob you…" Interloper assured the Cashier. "It's just a bandanna…"

"This is what happens when you chose that gear." Eagle told him.

"I already had one on." Interloper didn't understand what changed.

The three friends then ordered their food and sat down to eat, remarking on the amazing quality of the food.

Interloper then looked around.

"Where'd Fizz go?" He asked, having just noticed he was gone.

Eagle and Aileen then scanned the room.

"Huh…dunno…" Eagle said. "Wandered off again, like normal."

Interloper finished his food and got up.

"Well, I'mma look around." He told the two.

"Alright, have fun with that." Eagle told him.

Interloper then walked out of the shop.

"Hm…" Interloper was thinking where to go next. "Oh, and antique store!"

He then walked over and looked around, stopping when he saw they had some old stuff from the Great Turf War.

"Oooooooo…"

Eagle and Aileen left the Donut shop.

"Oh, Aileen, look!" Eagle pointed out a computer store.

"Hm?" Aileen looked over. "Ooohhhh!"

They immediately ran in, excited by all the sights.

A Few Minutes Later…

"Hey guys!" Interloper came in holding a large box.

"Oh, what's that?" Eagle was curious.

Interloper then opened up the box to reveal an old-looking Brush.

"They actually had an old Octobrush!" He said, excitedly. "From the Great Turf War!"

"Wow, that's old." Eagle remarked.

"Bet Kaurna will get a kick out of fixing this up…" Interloper remarked.

"Hey, look!" Aileen got excited. "Some games!"

Aileen ran over to check out what games were available while the other two were left to witness Fizz walking over, dragging a sword on the ground.

"Uh…" Interloper got nervous.

"Look what I found!" Fizz presented his purchase.

"Fizz, is that a good idea?" Eagle was nervous too.

Relax, it's just for show." Fizz assured them.

"Where'd you get that thing anyway?" Interloper asked while Eagle scanned the computer components.

"One of my real weapon shops made it here and they sold SWORDS!" Fizz got excited. "Do you know how hard it is to find these things?"

"Oh, wow…" Interloper was impressed. "I got a Turf War Era Octobrush! I wonder if it was used in combat…"

Eagle grabbed a couple parts and headed to the register. Interloper grabbed a whole computer, knowing Kaurna would like to fix it up. Aileen ran over with a bag full of games. They soon left the mall with the last thing being purchased was a lava lamp by Interloper, who made his items disappear until he'd need them again. Eagle and Aileen decided to head back to the hotel, leaving Interloper alone with Fizz.

"Well, they're heading back…what now, Fizz?" Interloper asked.

"Hm…dunno…" He was thinking.

"Not sure there's much else to do in town…" Interloper looked around. "There's gotta be something entertaining…"

"I heard there's a karaoke bar nearby, if you're up for singing." Fizz offered.

"Hm…maybe…" Interloper was considering it. "Shit…I'd love to do a duet with Kaurna…"

"You can do a duet with me." Fizz shrugged. "I'm a hell of a singer.

"Eh, why not?" Interloper shrugged.

The two walked over to the bar, which was right across the street. Fizz was checking his phone the entire walk over.

"Look for something good at the bar." Fizz told Interloper. "I'll look at the songs. Hopefully, they'll have the relics…"

"Okay." Interloper agreed. "Whatever a relic is…"

A few minutes later, Interloper joined Fizz at the stage, drinks in-hand.

"Well, they have the Cirrina Sunrise here." Interloper handed Fizz a drink.

"Nice." Fizz gladly took the drink.

"I got the Callisto Cognac." Interloper showed him. I mean, I don't usually drink, but I thought I'd try some."

"You always say you don't usually drink, but you definitely drink more than you let on." Fizz pointed out.

"I-I just…" Interloper was trying to think of an explanation. "I'll try some occasionally, but I try not to…"

"You gotta let loose sometimes." Fizz urged him. "More than you generally tend to at least."

"I mean, I let loose sometimes like with the bottle of Champaign, but I don't wanna risk becoming an alcoholic or something…"

"You won't become an alcoholic from letting loose every so often." Fizz assured him. "Trust me, I know."

"I know…" Interloper nodded his head. "I just…don't exactly trust myself around these things…"

"Down the drink regardless, because I've got a song for us." Fizz told him.

"Oh, uh…which one?" Interloper asked, taking a sip.

"It's called Clint Eastwood." Fizz named the song. "It's a relic from my world."

"I'll…do my best…" Interloper said before finishing his drink. "Whew…"

The song played and they began. Knowing this song by heart, fizz sang the chorus near on level to the original, with a few tonal changes. Despite Interloper having never heard the song before, he sang his part competently and the song turned out better than expected.

"Did I do it right?" Interloper wondered.

"A bit off beat, but never having heard the song before, I'd say it was pretty good."

"Alright!" Interloper did a small victory pose.

Fizz rolled his eyes and went to the bar. Interloper actually thought of getting another drink and joined him a minute later.

"I'll just take whatever he's getting." Interloper told the bartender.

"You sure about that?" Fizz raised an eyebrow.

"Why not?" Interloper looked at him. "You think I can't handle it?"

"It's the strongest drink they have." Fizz warned. "The Fire Rocker."

"I'll have that anyway." Interloper shrugged. "I can take it."

The bartender gave them their drinks.

"Cheers!" Interloper raised his glass.

Fizz lazily raised his glass in response.

Interloper took a small sip.

"Agh…that really burns your throat, doesn't it?" Interloper coughed.

"Yep." Fizz agreed.

He then downed the drink and gasped.

"Ooh, haven't had that in a long time…" Fizz sighed.

"Alright then…" Interloper then downed the rest. "Hagh! Wow…that…was awesome."

"Mhmm." Fizz nodded his head.

"Another!" Interloper told the bartender.

They both downed another round.

"Whew!" Interloper cheered. "A-no-ther!"

He then received another.

"Careful, dude…" Fizz warned.

"What?" Interloper tilted his head. "I told ya I can handle it! You don't believe me?"

He then downed another drink.

"Ah…" He sighed. "See? I-oh…my vision's a little blurry…"

"That's what I was warning you about." Fizz told him.

"This is awesome though…" Interloper grinned.

"Keep yourself together..." Fizz urged him.

"Right…" Interloper nodded his head. "Man, can this day get any better?"

"Well, I mean…" Fizz took another sip. "Not unless you want to cheat on Kaurna…"

"What? NO!" Interloper looked insulted. "I'd never cheat on Kaurna! She means so much to me at this point…I…I wanna be with her…*hic*…

"Hmm…" Fizz seemed to be thinking.

"It's not like there's anyone here better than her anyway…" Interloper continued. "She's the best girl I know…"

"I'm sure she thinks the same of you…" Fizz then muttered to himself. "Which makes the situation at the hotel even more interesting…"

"I know she does." Interloper thankfully didn't hear the last part. "She told me in her video how she feels about me…she told me…everything…"

Fizz seemed to be thinking more.

"…What would you do if she cheated on you?" He asked.

"She wouldn't." Interloper told him. "Sure, she may get weak to flirting, but I know she's tougher than to fall for that."

"Yes, but what if-"

Fizz got cut off when Interloper slammed his hand on the table.

"She wouldn't!" He shouted. "I know she wouldn't!

Fizz then had another drink

"…But what you do if she did?" Fizz wondered.

"Doesn't matter because I know she wouldn't…" Interloper said. "I trusted her enough to tell her my real name. I haven't told anyone that in years…She means a lot to me, Fizz…"

Fizz then slipped his phone away with a text from Ash bragging about scoring with Kaurna.

"You seem to be very curious what I'd think…" Interloper noticed. "You better not be insulting her…"

"I'm just curious." Fizz assured him. "But you don't seem to have an answer, so…"

"Fizz," Interloper sighed. "Stop insulting Kaurna…"

"I'm not insulting her." Fizz shook his head.

"Good." Interloper took a small sip.

"I still want to know what you would do…" Fizz said.

"If you're implying I'd hurt her, you're sorely mistaken…" Interloper glared at him.

"I'm not implying anything, I'm asking genuinely, what would you do?" Fizz repeated his question.

"Wait…" Interloper looked Fizz in the eye. "Are you saying you wanna get with her? Because that's not happening…"

"I don't want to get with her!" Fizz was annoyed by the implication. "Look, would you answer the fucking question?

"Why do you wanna know so badly?!" Interloper was getting annoyed now.

"It's just a question." Fizz assured him.

"Well, I don't feel like answering, okay?" Interloper was done with this. "Look, just drop it."

"Fine." Fizz sighed.

"She wouldn't…" Interloper assured the both of them. "She wouldn't break my trust like that…"

"No…of course not…" Fizz felt uneasy now.

"…I-uh…I'm wobbling a little…" Interloper slowly got up. "We should head back…I'll take a portal, please."

Fizz opened a portal and they entered.

"I think I'll sleep a bit…" Interloper held his head. "This was a good day…"

"Yeah…" Fizz nodded his head.

Exiting the portal, Interloper stumbled to his hotel room Kaurna opened the door.

"Oh, Inty!" Kaurna rushed up and hugged him. "Wait…are you…?"

"Yeah…drank a liiiittle with Fizz…" Interloper told her.

"Without me?" Kaurna looked disappointed.

"I'm sorry…" Interloper sighed.

Kaurna then noticed Fizz giving her a knowing look.

"Go into the bed and I will kiss you goodnight!" Kaurna told Interloper.

"But it's Afternoon still…" Interloper said as he stumbled into their room, leaving Kaurna alone with Fizz.

"Kaurna…" Fizz called her.

"Y-yes…?" Kaurna was felt nervous.

"Ash…really?" He looked at her, disappointed.

"I…do not tell him, please…" She begged. "I had tell her it was the one-time thing. I fell one time, but not again."

"You'll fall again." Fizz assured her. "You know you will."

"I will not!" Ash assured him. "I have tell Ash it shall not happen again."

"Ash isn't gonna accept that and you know it." Fizz said.

"I…can you not control her?" Kaurna asked.

"I'm not her dad, she does what she wants!" Fizz told her.

"W-well…can you ask her not to…?" Kaurna wondered.

"I did." Fizz replied. "Before we went on this trip, I specifically asked her not to."

"…Oh dear…" Kaurna held her head.

"Look, I'm not gonna tell," Fizz assured her. "But just know he reacted violently at the idea of you cheating."

"Oh no…" Kaurna was more worried now. "I-I will try to be stronger next time…"

"You don't have to, one is already too much." Fizz remarked.

"One-time thing…one-time thing…" Kaurna told herself.

Fizz then put his hand on her shoulder.

"Good luck." He wished her.

She nodded.

"I…fell to Ash's flirting once…" She admitted. "M-maybe if I explain to her…she will back off."

"She's a homewrecker." Fizz shook his head. "She's not gonna care…"

"Oh…" Kaurna took a second to think, then looked at her watch. "I-I have my spa appointment soon. I should be leaving soon."

"Go ahead." Fizz let her go.

Kaurna smiled and went into her room as Fizz waited in the hallway. She came out a minute later.

"He had fallen asleep already." Kaurna told Fizz. "Still gave kiss though."

"Enjoy your spa day." Fizz told her.

Kaurna smiled and waved goodbye. Fizz waved back and went in his room.


	17. In which they return

**Normally I would leave Eagle's author's note in here, but he got a bit too descriptive. So you get mine. In which they return, written and Transcribed by eaglebyte.**

The next day, the group, minus Ngyes, Fizz and Ash, sat in the hotel lobby, feasting on the breakfast bar.

"So what'd you guys do after I left?" asked Eagle, mouth partially full of waffles.

Interloper swallowed his food. "We went to a karaoke bar."

"Oh? How was it?"

"Fizz and I sang a little, and I got a bit drunk." He took a sip of some sea cow milk.

"I thought you didn't drink."

"Well," he said, putting his cup down. "I usually don't, but I thought, 'why not?'"

"I mean, it tastes good," Eagle agreed. "Or, beer does, at least."

"I had the strongest stuff in town," Interloper said, puffing his chest out with pride.

"Oh wow. Hangover?"

"Surprisingly, no, not this time."

"Wow, that's crazy."

"Hey guys, what'd I miss?" Ngyes said, walking into the lobby.

"Oh, hey, Ngyes," Eagle greeted. The others murmured their greetings. "You didn't miss much, just a trip to the mall, a talk with Fizz, and the other two went to a karaoke bar."

"Well, you may not do a good job staying here, but at least you can drop your deep-seated hatred of Octolings around Kaurna.," Interloper said.

"He hates Octolings?" Kaurna asked.

"Nah," Ngyes said, waving her off.

Interloper looked confused. "Preeeetty sure you did."

"I do."

"You do not act like it…" Kaurna, too, looked confused.

"Yeah, I thought you were fine with us," Aileen chimed in. "Especially with three of us here, you certainly don't show it."

"I agree. Maybe this world is changing his mind?"

Ngyes shrugged. "I'm fine with you guys, just still don't trust them that much…"

"Well, I've lived with Inklings nearly my entire life, so there shouldn't be any trust issues with me regardless."

Kaurna coughed. "I had gone to spa yesterday!" she announced, changing the subject.

"How was it?" Eagle asked.

"Skin feels so smooth…" She rubbed her face. "Like weights have been lifted off…"

"Oh, cool. That happens to me when I wake up for some reason. My skin feels really nice every morning."

Kaurna reached over and touched his face. Eagle recoiled slightly in surprise while Aileen attempted to not laugh at his expression."Oooooohhhhh."

"Uh, I…" Eagle stuttered.

"Okay, you can stop touching his face, Kaurna," Interloper said with a slight smile.

"Hehee, sorry!" Kaurna put her hand back in her lap."

"That was...awkward…" Eagle muttered.

"It was smooth like newborn!" remarked Kaurna.

Ngyes nodded. "Really was awkward."

"Literally nobody has done that before," Eagle noted, still surprised. "That was a first…"

"My hands hate me sometimes," Ngyes said. "They're always so dry."

"Oh, that's not fun," Aileen sympathized.

"Geez, where are Ash and Fizz?" Eagle looked around the room, surprised they weren't there yet.

"They were awake when Aileen and I left the room."

"Well," Interloper said with a sly grin. "If Ash isn't stuffing her face with food, she's probably stuffing it with something else…"

This joke caused Kaurna to choke on her food slightly. "Ha!" she exclaimed.

Eagle looked at her with concern. "Woah, you okay?"

"S-sorry...I was...just not expecting Inty to speak that…"

"Heh," Interloper laughed.

"Either that or they're in the shower, but either way," Eagle remarked.

As if on cue, Fizz walked into the lobby and headed over to the breakfast bar, grumbling.

"Hey, Fizz!" Interloper called. "You okay?"

"Oh, don't worry about me," he replied. "Just _very _annoyed right now."

"I feel like we should be worried...what happened? What annoyed you this time?"

"Ash."

"Ash." Eagle said sarcastically. "She annoyed you?"

"Eh, I figured she'd get on your nerves eventually," Interloper remarked. "She seems like she would after living with her for a while."

"Yeah, but it's Fizz and Ash, they're practically meant for each other."

"FUCKING HE-" They all looked at Ngyes, who turned into a green cloud. When the cloud dissipated, he was gone like normal.

"Ope, there goes Ngyes again…"

"Bye…" Interloper turned back to Fizz. "So what did Ash do to get on your nerves so much?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Eagle saw Kaurna fidget in her seat, but he didn't say anything of it.

Fizz, in response to Interloper's question, downed a whole glass of orange juice.

"Meh, whatever, I'm gonna get more food." Eagle stood up and walked over to the bar. "Don't think he'll tell us like normal."

"Must not have been much anyways."

Fizz looked up at Interloper, a worried expression on his face.

"Uh, Fizz?" Eagle said, sitting back down and seeing his expression.

"Uh...do we have any plans today?" Kaurna said quickly.

"Not sure…" Interloper responded.

"Not that I'm sure of," said Eagle.

"I already got some stuff at the mall…"

"I was thinking we could go to a beach, or something like that. There's one near here, according to my universe."

"Nobody says that a road trip is exclusive to the town you're staying in…"

"Yeah, exactly."

"Where should this beach be?"

"Uh, something like an hour away, I think."

"Alrighty!" The keys to the RV appeared in Interloper's hand

"And the best part is that we can just stay there. I mean, we've got a fucking RV, who needs a hotel?"

"Yeah, the hotel was fun, but we've got other places to be!"

"Well, we should pack up real quick."

"Yeah…"

"I'll start!" Aileen got up and ran off to the room.

"Me too!" Kaurna followed her.

"Wow, alright," Eagle muttered. He got up and walked back to the room slowly. "I swear, where do they have all this energy?"

"Guess I'll stay here," Interloper said. He got up to get himself some more food. "Hey, Fizz, you'll need to tell Ash to pack her stuff up."

"Mhmm," he responded, a typical Fizz response.

"So what did Ash do to annoy you so much? You two go together like peanut butter and jelly fish."

"She won't listen to me," Fizz sighed.

"Ah…"

Soon after, Eagle walked back in, backpacks slung over his shoulders. Kaurna was close behind him.

"I could not fit the brush, computer parts, or lava lamp," she said.

"Don't worry, you don't have to." Interloper closed his eyes, then opened them a minute later. "All done."

"Man, you made that look easy," Eagle said.

"It's just a small power I have," he replied. "I'm able to store things in a little magical space."

"But you made it look easy."

"It's not a hard one."

Eagle looked over at Fizz. "Can you do that?"

"Yeah, but I usually store food and stuff," Fizz grunted.

Interloper laughed. "Bet that makes Ash happy."

At that moment, Ash walked in hauling all the luggage she and Fizz took. Kaurna noticeably avoided her. Aileen wasn't too far behind, running back in.

"Ready Inty?" Kaurna asked.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Welp, that's that," Aileen announced.

"As soon as we're done eating, we'll head out. Fizz'll check us out."

"Already done," Fizz stated flatly.

"Oh, cool. I'm gonna help Kaurna load the RV up. I'll be waiting for you guys." He got up and led Kaurna out of the lobby to the RV. Fizz sent Ash off with them, while Eagle and Aileen trailed the group, leaving Fizz alone.

"Seriously, Ash," Interloper exclaimed. "You need any help with those?"

"Nope!" she happily replied.

"I mean, because I can levitate them-"

"She is fine," Kaurna cut him of sharply.

Interloper looked at her in surprise for a moment. "Okay…"

"You okay Kaurna?" asked Eagle. "You seem a bit...touchy."

"I am just...in a bit of an iffy mood."

"Okay then…"

Fizz caught up to them. "Oh, I'm sure."

"How would you know that?" asked Eagle, intrigued.

"Magic, I guess," Interloper suggested.

"Oh, right, forgot I'm the only non-magic guy here."

Interloper stuck the bags in the RV, floating them all nicely into place, making Eagle want magic powers even more. They all then loaded up, Eagle and Aileen sitting on the couch opposite the door, Interloper and Kaurna sitting up front, Ash heading back to the bed, and Fizz leaning up against the wall by the door.

"You guys ready?" asked Interloper, starting the RV.

Eagle and Aileen buckled up and flashed him a thumbs-up.

"Go for it," stated Fizz.

"Do you just hate car seats, Fizz?"

Fizz shrugged. "It's not a big deal, just more of a preference."

"Okay…"

"Oh, here," Eagle said, getting his phone out and handing it to Interloper, a map pulled up.

"What's this?" Interloper asked, grabbing it. "A phone?"

"Nooooo," Fizz responded sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"No, good old Glooga Maps," Eagle ignored Fizz, pointing the map out.

"Ah, right." Interloper set the phone on the dash, and Eagle sat back down, putting his arm around Aileen.

"Okay...start route!" Interloper stepped on the gas, the RV pulling out of the hotel parking lot.

After driving on the highway a bit, Eagle got up and grabbed himself a pop bottle from the fridge, popping it open and taking a sip.

Aileen looked over. "Do you know how bad it is to drink one of those this early in the morning?"

"Pff, do I look like I care?" Eagle shrugged her off.

"No…"

"I've had soda in the morning before," chimed in Interloper. "Waaay better than coffee."

"Eh, whatever," Aileen said. "Do that if you want, I'm not drinking one right now."

"Hey, Kaurna, could you get me a drink?"

"Sure." Kaurna headed over and grabbed him a pop bottle as well. On her way back to the seat, she saw Fizz staring at his phone. "What are you looking at?" she asked, leaning in. Descreetly, he showed her the screen, at which her eyes went wide. "Oh dear…"

"What?" Eagle asked, interested. She ignored him and returned to the seat, handing the drink to Interloper.

"Here you go Inty!" she said.

"You guys and your secrets. You really worry me sometimes."

"Everyone has secrets," Fizz plainly said.

"I tend to tell people things, though."

"You can't expect me to believe that you've told us everything, can you?"

"I haven't told you _everything, _but there's not much left to tell," he lied. There was _plenty _about his life he hadn't told them, and he had no intentions of telling them. "I wonder if Ngyes will show up again?" he wondered aloud, changing the subject.

"Not sure…" Interloper muttered.

Around and hour later, they pulled up to the beach, parking right by the sand. They got a pretty good spot since it was pretty early in the morning.

Eagle stirred, opening his eyes from his nap. He stretched a little and looked out the window. "Oh, look, we're here."

"Yup!" Interloper said, turning the RV off. He got up and stretched. He looked out the window as well. "Luckily, I can see the shallow parts from here."

"That's helpful for you."

"It actually seems shallow for a good while before getting deep."

"No sinking!" Kaurna cheered.

Eagle snapped his fingers, opening a portal. "Hang on," he said. "Lemme just go grab my scuba stuff." He walked through the portal.

"Oh, wait for me!" Aileen ran in after him, the portal sealing behind her.

"Okay then…" Interloper pulled his suit out of the suitcase, Kaurna doing the same. "The rest of us probably should change."

Kaurna agreed. "Yes!"

Ash, in response, waved and ran out of the RV.

"Let me guess...Ash already has a suit on?"

"Or plans on not wearing it..."

At that, Eagle and Aileen portaled back in, each wearing a wetsuit with an oxygen tank and bag under their arms. Where they procured those scuba suits, nobody knew. "Alright, we're ready!" Eagle called.

"Well, come on then," said Fizz, motioning to the door.

"Kaurna and I will change in the RV restroom," Interloper announced. "You guys can go on ahead."

The group nodded and walked out of the RV, heading right into the water. Eagle and Aileen dove under, staying under for quite a while.

A few minutes later, Interloper and Kaurna ran out of the RV, outfitted in typical beach attire. Kaurna set up an umbrella and laid down on a towel. She laid down and pulled out a bottle of sunscreen. "Desire to get my back, Inty?" she asked, handing it up to him.

"Heh, okay," he said, grabbing the bottle and rubbing it in.

Eagle resurfaced for a moment, muttering how he forgot the camera. He grabbed it and sunk back under the water. "This feels pretty good," he said. "Much better than those crappy hotel pools."

"Yeah, a nice day out, too," Interloper agreed, heading out to the water. "Good for beaches!"

Fizz turns and walks under the water out of sight.

"Uh, okay…"

"He better not be stuck again," Eagle groaned, putting the breather back in his mouth and heading under the water.

"I'm gonna grab the beachball, Kaurna," Interloper called, running back up to the RV.

"I will be in water!" she replied.

"W-where else would you be?"

"Heehee!"

As Interloper headed up to the RV, he noticed Ash lying down on the towel Kaurna had laid out. "Uh, don't you have your own towel?"

"Nah," she replied. "You're all in the water anyways."

"Surprised Fizz didn't teleport in your own towel and umbrella."

Aileen surfaced a few moments later, ready to lie on in the sun. As she was walking up, Fizz resurfaced wearing a hockey mask and carrying a machete in his hand.

"Aah!" Aileen exclaimed, seeing him. "Fizz, come on!"

"EEK!" Kaurna screamed.

"What?" Fizz asked, confused. "It was under the water. Really old, too!"

"Under there?!"

"Wow, that's interesting," Aileen agreed.

Interloper ran back out of the RV, beach ball in hand. "Hey, we're gonna be hitting this around, wanna join in, Ash?"

"Sure!" she said, hopping up.

"Cool!" The two of them ran out into the water. He threw the ball to Ash, who caught it and threw it over to Kaurna. Meanwhile, Eagle slowly and silently snuck up in the water directly behind Interloper. "BOO!" he shouted.

"GAH!" Interloper shouted, and Eagle flew up ten feet in the air, launched by Interloper's magic.

"Woah!" Eagle quickly snapped, opening a portal under himself, it dropping him just a couple inches above the sand. He landed hard, knocking the air out of him. "That...was a mistake…"

"S-sorry!" Interloper apologized.

"No, it's my bad."

"It's okay."

"Just gonna...sit here for a bit…"

Kaurna threw the ball back to Interloper, who tossed it back to her. This passing back and forth happened for a little bit. "You know, Ash is playing too," Interloper said.

Kaurna glanced over at Ash with disgust and threw it back to Interloper.

"Sheesh, Interloper must be pissing _everybody _off today…"

"Oh, let me join!" Aileen called, dropping the oxygen tank off her back and running over.

"Ooh, catch!" Kaurna shouted, tossing it to her. She caught it easily, and threw it to Interloper.

"Hey Fizz, you wanna play, too?" Interloper asked, catching the ball.

"Nah, I'm good," he replied.

They took some time passing the ball back and forth, and eventually, Interloper and Kaurna headed back up to the umbrella. Kaurna laid down on her towel while Interloper made one appear and laid down beside her.

Eagle continued to lie where he was on the sand near them.

"Josiah, you have any room for me?" Aileen called.

He sat up and looked at her. "I'm not even on a towel."

"Oh, heh, didn't notice." She walked over and laid down on the sand beside him. "Such a nice day out today!"

"Yeah," agreed Interloper.

Fizz sharpened his machete and then swung it around. "I think I'm gonna keep this," he said.

"Fizz, you already have a sword, do you need a machete too?" Eagle asked, slightly nervous.

"Well yeah, the sword is for show. But this, well, this is a real weapon."

"Oh, right…"

"Not sure about the hockey mask, though." He took it off and looked at it. "It's got, like, an axe mark in it or something."

"These wetsuits certainly trap the heat well," Aileen noted a while later.

"Well, then take them off," Interloper replied. "Unless you like a farmer's tan…"

"Yeah, you're right, no point in having it on." She got up and took it off, her usual swimming attire underneath. "Oh, that sun feels good."

"Hey, I wanna get in on that," Eagle said, doing the same. "You're right, it's pretty good."

"Yeah," Interloper agreed again. He looked at Aileen and Kaurna. "That running you guys do really does you two well," he mentioned.

"Thanks, Inty!" Kaurna said. Aileen blushed.

Eagle looked at them both as well. "Yeah, you're pretty sleek."

"Slightly muscular, but not too much," added Fizz. "A good look for you two."

This caused Aileen to turn even more red, as people usually didn't compliment her.

"Uh...thank you, Fizz," Kaurna said.

"You guys," muttered Aileen with a smile.

A green cloud suddenly appeared, and when it cleared, Ngyes was standing on the beach. "Oh, cool, the beach."

"Too bad you'd melt," Interloper said with a sorry tone.

Ngyes shrugged.

"Oh, we also got all your stuff from the room, packed up whatever we could find."

"Oh, okay," he replied, sitting down.

They laid in the sun for a while before Eagle spoke up. "Hey, there's, like, a beachside bar not too far away, maybe a mile. Wanna check it out?"

The group murmured their agreement.

"Alright, let's go then," Aileen said, grabbing the scuba gear and tossing it into the RV. The others did the same with the other stuff they brought.

"Should we walk or drive?" Eagle asked. "It is only a mile after all."

"I will run!" Kaurna said, running off.

"Wait, she doesn't even know where it is."

Interloper pulled out his map quickly. "It's the other way, Kaurna!" he called.

"Okay!" she responded, running off in the direction he pointed her in.

"Well, we should probably head down there, don't want there to be nothing left for us to drink," joked Eagle.

"She won't drink everything," Interloper flatly replied. "She gets a little out of control sometimes, yes, but she's not an alcoholic."

"Dude, it was a joke. I don't think she'd actually do that."

Interloper started the RV and drove out of the parking lot. Fizz put his mask back on.

"You know," he said. "I think I'm gonna keep this mask."

"Yeah, I think it suits you," Eagle noted.

"See this slash?" Fizz pointed to the top of the mask where there was a cut.

"Yeah, looks pretty sick."

"Why does Fizz have that stuff?" asked Ngyes nervously.

"He found it underwater."

"Oh, cool."

Quickly, they travel the mile. Interloper pulls into the parking lot and shuts the RV off, hopping out. The rest of the group got out as well, heading inside.

"Hey, there's Kaurna," Aileen said, pointing to a figure running up at an astonishing speed.

"She...is..._fast,_" exclaimed Interloper.

"Damn, someone's excited," Ngyes laughed.

She runs up and isn't even winded. "Hey, guys!"

Eagle looks at her in disbelief. "The fuck, how are you not winded? You just ran a mile!"

"Army training," Fizz said.

"And good stamina!" added Kaurna. "I...practice…"

"Yeah, I can tell," Eagle noted.

Kaurna did a handstand, to emphasize the point. "Everyday!"

"Good stamina in what sense, Kaurna?" Fizz winked.

"Shut up, Fizz," replied Interloper.

"Uh, let us get drinks!" Kaurna returned to standing rightside up and ran into the bar, sitting at the counter.

"Hmm, look, a tequila," Eagle noted, looking at the menu.

Fizz ordered a blue line, Eagle got his tequila, and both Interloper and Kaurna got an Octarian ale. Ngyes pulled an orange soda out of his bag and popped it open.

"You should try the blue wine, it's only sold on beach bars." Fizz took a sip of his, enjoying the flavor.

"Oh, okay!" Kaurna replied, ordering one herself. Ash grabbed one as well. She downed it quickly, not even taking the time to enjoy it.

"Ash, slow yourself," Eagle warned. "I made that mistake last time, not worth it."

"You aren't an alcoholic, though," Fizz said. "She is."

"True…"

"Girl needs rehab," muttered Interloper.

"Your GIRLFRIEND'S the one who needs rehab-" Ash was cut off by Fizz covering her mouth. She glared at him, forcing his hand off her mouth.

"I am not an alcoholic!" Kaurna yelled.

"Yeah, she knows when to control herself," defended Interloper. "For instance, when she's a potential driver."

"Control, hah!"

"What's that mean?"

"Oh, just that-" Before Ash could finish, Fizz portaled her away back to the RV.

"Fizz, for cod's sake, what are you hiding this time?" demanded Eagle. He put his glass down and looked at Fizz.

Fizz, in response, simply groaned and drank a shot.

"Yeah, something's definitely up," Ngyes noted.

"You're not helping yourself…"

"Geez, Fizz, you must've argued hard," Interloper said.

"That's not what happened, but whatever," replied Fizz.

"You said he did," Eagle interjected.

"I said she didn't listen, I said nothing about an argument."

"That alludes to argument."

"In a normal case, yes."

"Then what won't she agree with you on?"

"Moralistic values." He took another shot.

"Well, it should be fine then," Interloper said.

"I'm going out to the beach," announced Ngyes, leaving the others in the bar.

"Where did you send Ash, anyways?"

"She's in the RV, probably setting something up now." He took yet another shot.

"Setting something up? Like what, I wonder?"

"Fuck if I know, maybe it's something stupid like a date with Kaurna or something."

Interloper laughed and took a sip of his drink. "Ha, good one!"

Fizz looked over at Kaurna with a knowing look.

"Yeah, good one, Fizz," Eagle said, but then noticed his gaze. "Right? Wait a minute…"

Kaurna nervously sipped her drink.

"Fizz, you aren't serious, are you?"

"Wait," Interloper said. "So you're telling me Kaurna's so hot, Ash wants a date?"

Fizz coughed. "Uh, yeah, that's it."

"Hmm…" Aileen looked over at Kaurna skeptically, who sighed in relief.

"She is...flirty," Kaurna replied.

"Oh, yeah, she is," said Aileen sarcastically. "I refuse it though, not into her."

"I mean, I knew Kaurna was hotter than her, but damn," Interloper laughed.

"Kaurna being hotter than Ash is preference, thanks," Fizz replied, slightly annoyed. "I'd take her over Kaurna, better body shape."

"If you think slight beer belly is better…"

"Better than being a foot shorter than me. Kaurna's tiny."

"I am more athletic," Kaurna protested.

"Just because she's short doesn't mean she has a bad body," Aileen said.

"That's not what I said," Fizz shot back. "And you fucking know it isn't."

"I know that."

"She's just saying that she'd take it the other way," Eagle defended.

"Precisely."

"You do not like shorter girls?" asked Kaurna.

"I think you offended her, Fizz…" Eagle muttered.

"Fizz, I'm pretty sure you're just tall," Interloper said.

"Giant!" agreed Kaurna.

"I'm fine with shorter girls, just I prefer taller ones," Fizz replied.

"So you have a tall freak to make you feel better," Eagle joked. Aileen laughed.

Fizz rolled his eyes and paid for the drinks.

"I mean, she's only a couple inches shorter than me," defended Interloper.

"That's not too bad."

"Meh, I'm fine being a bit shorter," Aileen said. "I really don't care, despite the fact that Octolings are normally taller than Inklings."

"Are they?" asked Kaurna.

"In our universe, yeah."

"I usually am seeing same sizes…"

"Huh," Eagle said. "Yeah, in our universe, they're slightly taller, maybe a couple inches."

"I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum," Aileen continued. "A few inches _shorter."_

"All my Octolings are generally around the same size," Fizz mentioned.

"Our universes are so different…"

"No shit."

"I wonder what else is different?"

"We've been over this several times."

"Uh, I still want to learn more. I like learning things."

"Uh huh, right."

"No, really."

Kaurna finished her drink and set her glass down. "I am going into water now," she declared.

"Have fun."

She walked out of the bar, and outside saw Ngyes sitting on a raft in the water.

"Ooh, nice! But...what if wave flip you over?"

"I'll be fine," Ngyes waved her off.

Kaurna walked into the water a little ways.

"Lucky you guys can do that. It was hell getting this raft on the water without getting wet."

"I cannot swim unlike Fizz and Eagle and Aileen."

"Ah."

Eagle walked out of the bar a moment later, Interloper in tow. "Somebody mention me?"

"I mention how I can not swim."

"Ah."

Ngyes opened up the bag he was holding and pulled out an already-inflated raft.

"That bag seems magical with how you fit stuff in it."

"It is magic."

"Ah, cool."

"Long story how I got-" At that, he disappeared in another cloud of green.

"Oh, bye…"

"So what now?" Interloper asked. "We've done beach and bar...anything else to do?"

"Eh, not much."

"Leave?" Fizz suggested. "We should keep moving."

"Yeah," Interloper agreed. "But go where though?"

"Dunno, it might be good to get back to Inkopolis, I guess."

"Okay then." Interloper walked back up to the RV. "I'll go in first, cod knows Ash probably set something up."

Cautiously, he opened the door, mind prepared for whatever might be lying on the other side. He carefully walked in and looking around spotted Ash, asleep on the bed. "Ah, good, nothing surprising."

Eagle was next inside. "Well that was anticlimactic," he lamented. He and Aileen than sat down in their seat.

"Guess I'll drive again," Interloper said, sitting in the driver's seat, Kaurna sitting shotgun. "Y'all ready?"

"Yup, start 'er up."

Interloper started the RV and pulled out of the parking lot, setting course for the Square. "Inkopolis, here we come!"


	18. The Trip Aftermath

The Next Day…Inkopolis Square…

"That was a pretty good trip." Eagle remarked.

"Yeah…" Interloper nodded his head in agreement.

"I'm glad you suggested it." Eagle said.

"Was it me?" Interloper was a bit confused. "Maybe? I don't know…I forgot who mentioned it…hm…"

"Well, I'd say that was the best trip I've taken." Eagle shrugged. "At least…the best trip I can remember…"

"Same." Interloper agreed. "Can't wait until the next adventure."

"Oh, yeah." Eagle nodded his head. "Knowing this place, there's bound to be another one some time soon."

"Shame we never used the camping equipment though…" Interloper said.

"Yeah, maybe we could take a legit camping trip when it warms up a bit more." Eagle suggested. "Still a bit too cold for one right now, though that ocean water felt pretty good. So I'd say we're well on our way."

"Actually, Kaurna and I were considering taking a camping trip around Maunt Nantai or something since we never used the camping stuff."

"Just the two of you?" Eagle asked. "I'm sure she'd enjoy that."

"Oh, yeah…" Interloper nodded his head. "Relationship's getting pretty good at this point. We're going further, so to speak…"

"That's always nice." Eagle said, getting what he meant.

"She's actually considering moving in with me." Interloper told him. "I mean, it'd probable be easier to move my things there, but my place is bigger."

"Yeah, I'd move her to you." Eagle agreed. "Not sure why she's hesitating though. That means she doesn't have to pay rent."

"Oh, she's not hesitating." Interloper corrected him. "We've only now started talking about it."

"Well, you need help moving, just gimme a call." Eagle offered. "Although, I'm sure you'll be fine considering your powers and all."

"Oh yeah, plenty of options." Interloper agreed. "Teleportation, levitation, a van, or I could trick Ash into carrying everything…seemed pretty insistent on carrying those suitcases…I should see what Kaurna thinks."

Interloper started texting Kaurna."Hm…she seems to want it to be just me and her. I mean, more romantic, definitely."

"Well, can't argue with that." Eagle shrugged.

"Though she's been avoiding Ash a lot…" Interloper added.

"Yeah, she has." Eagle noticed. "Wonder what's up with that?"

"Maybe Ash got too flirty at one point." Interloper guessed. "Kaurna can have trouble handling her emotions at times due to how she was raised. Sometimes, things can be too much for her."

"Oh…"Eagle understood.

"Ash keeps it up, who know's what'll happen?" Interloper wondered.

"No clue." Eagle either didn't or couldn't guess.

"Haven't seen Fizz since we got back too…" Interloper pointed out. "Wonder where he wandered off to…?"

"Dunno, but it's Fizz." Eagle pointed out.

"Yeah…" Interloper agreed, knowing Fizz is quite a strange individual. "At the moment, Kaurna's tinkering with the computer I got her."

"Oh, I be she's having fun." Eagle correctly guessed.

"No doubt she'll turn it into some…Ultracomputer." Interloper just made that up.

"I wonder what she'll do with it…?" Eagle wondered.

"She may be happy enough just fixing and improving it." Interloper said. "She'll find some use for it, I'm sure. And if she doesn't, I will."

"Wanna see how she's doing?" Eagle asked.

"Yeah!" Interloper got up and the two went over to Kaurna's apartment, only to have the door answered by Kaurna tackling Interloper to the ground.

"Woah, there!" Eagle was caught off-guard by that.

"Oh, hello Eagle." Kaurna looked up and waved at him. "What brings you two here?"

"I heard you've been screwing around with that computer you got." Eagle told her. "We wanted to check the progress."

"Ah, yes indeed!" An excited Kaurna jumped up and led them both in. "I have not done very much yet. I have gotten it in a better working order. It was the slow, glitch, and the mouse did not work."

"Oh, wow…" Eagle was surprised.

"That's how I got it cheap." Interloper told Eagle.

"I have fixed the glitches." Kaurna told them. "And the mouse. It runs very well…now…I am wondering how to improve it even more however…"

"New Hardware's a good place to start." Eagle said, having experience with these things.

"Yes…" Kaurna agreed, thinking of what she'd get.

"Well, it it's anything like Ash's wigs, you'll figure it out in no time." Interloper said, eliciting a bit of a groan from Kaurna.

"I only wish she speak of technology more…" Kaurna told them.

"Yeah, I think she's been distancing herself from Octarian stuff for a while now…" Interloper guessed.

"That big problem…" Kaurna said.

"Why?" Eagle wondered.

"Octarians should be find pride in their technological expertise, not distance themselves from it. Kaurna told him.

"Oh, oh…never heard that before…" Eagle said, a bit surprised. "My universe is different than yours. Octarians, while they have a different language, have a much different accent from you for starters."

"They do?" Kaurna asked. "Fascinating…"

"Universes are confusing at times…" Interloper felt that said it best.

"Well, I'm gonna go home now." Eagle said. "It's really late at home and I need sleep. Like…right now it's 10:00."

"Oh, yes." Kaurna agreed. "Go sleep."

"Okay then, take care!" Eagle waved them both goodbye as he opened a portal and left, leaving Kaurna and Interloper to discuss future plans.


	19. Snap

**AN: **Here it is, folks, the climax and ending of the first arc of Shared Universe, and whew, it's a ride. I'mma shut up now, let you get to the juicy stuff now. Eagle, out!

It happened two days after they returned from their trip. Fizz and Ash were sitting at a table in the Square, and Karuna walked up to them.

"Hi Fizz," she said. She looked at Ash with an upset look on her face. "Ash," she said after a slight pause. She then sat down at the table.

"Karuna, good to see you," Fizz replied with a calming smile. At that moment, Eagle walked in with some food and a drink.

"Hey, guys," he called as he walked over.

"Hello, Eagle," said Kaurna.

"Whatcha guys up to?" He was about to take a seat when Fizz spoke up.

"Hey, we've got some...personal business to deal with."

"Huh? Oh, okay."

"Would you mind leaving for a moment so we can deal with this?"

"Oh, sure, no problem. I understand." He picked his food back up and walked over to another table across the Square, out of earshot.

Fizz turned to Kaurna. "So, Kaurna."

"I know," Kaurna said with a sigh. "Ash…"

"Yesss?" she replied happily.

"I do not want to continue this. I feel….awful inside." She looked down at the ground.

"But," Ash protested. "I thought we were having fun!"

Kaurna sighed again. "It...it was for a bit. But...it isn't when I'm doing it behind Inty's back. I am lying to him, Ash. I felt nice for a little bit, but now I just feel like garbage."

"I see…"

"Please understand, Ash. I love Interloper…You were fun, but when I am with you, my mind goes…cloudy. I prefer to be in my full senses when in passion."

Ash got up and walked off without making a sound, her face displaying many emotions at once.

"That went well, I believe. What are you thinking, Fizz?"

"I'm not sure," he replied. "I'll have to check with her later." He then waved back at Eagle. "You can come back now!" he called. Josiah walked back over and sat down.

"Alright! Oh…where did Ash go?" He looked around the Square, not seeing her anywhere.

"Apologies," Kaurna said. "There was some…personal business."

Eagle waved his hand dismissively. "Psh, it's fine, I understand."

"Now we wait for Interloper," Fizz said with a sigh.

"He was at my apartment earlier today," Kaurna told him. "He desired of me to go out and do whatever I wanted to do and meet him at his apartment later today. He seemed…excited about something."

"Wonder what that was?" Josiah said.

"I am uncertain. He elected to stay behind at _my_ apartment, even, rather than return to his. I have absolutely no idea what he is doing."

"Well...should we find out?"

"I believe so."

The two of them got up, Eagle throwing away his food wrappers, having finished his meal.

"You coming, Fizz?" he asked.

"Yep," Fizz replied, getting up as well. He took another pill and stuck the cane on his back, not unlike sheathing a sword.

"You're not walking with it anymore," noted Eagle as they started walking, referring to the cane.

"Indeed," Kaurna agreed.

"Means you're making progress." The rest of the walk was in silence. Eventually, not too long after, they arrived at Kaurna's apartment.

"Alright," she said, putting the key in the door. "Here goes…" She turned the handle and went in. "Int-huh?"

"What?" Eagle asked, walking in. The entire room was completely empty. Absolutely everything was gone, even the floors were swept and vacuumed.

"Did he…move my things?" Kaurna looked around, dumbfounded.

"Damn, I didn't know he was gonna do it this fast! He and I were actually talking about this last night, and then he goes and does it not even 24 hours after mentioning it."

"That must mean why he wanted me to spend the day alone, and meet him at his place instead of mine. We spoke about doing it, but I didn't expect it to be this soon. Heh…he wished to surprise me."

"Well...surprise? Was it a good one?"

"Yes…"

"I hope so, considering the fact that we're about to give _him _his own surprise," Fizz agreed.

"Uh, Eagle…" Kaurna looked over at him.

"Hmm?"

"When we get to Interloper's apartment, be prepared."

"What, uh, o…okay."

"Alright," Kaurna said. "Let us go."

The three of them left the apartment, walking towards Interloper's, which was about a block or two away. Soon after they arrived. "This…I am nervous."

"You have every reason to be." Fizz put his hand on her shoulder in support.

Eagle, who had no clue still what she'd be nervous about, attempted to help. "I don't know what you're nervous about, but the best way to get over it is just to do it. Like ripping off a bandaid, don't hesitate."

Kaurna sighed and knocked on the door. "Hello?" she called out.

A shuffling was heard on the other side of the door and eventually it opened.

"K-kaurna!" Interloper said on the other side. "I wasn't expecting you so soon!"

"Well, surprise," said Eagle.

"Yeah…what are you guys doing here?" He looked confused.

"We have…news," said Fizz.

"News?"

"You may desire to sit down" Kaurna told him. They moved into the living room and Interloper and Eagle sat down.

Interloper motioned to Kaurna's furniture. "Well…surprise!"

"I am aware," she replied, unamused.

"Oh…"

"She went to her apartment first," said Josiah.

"Ah."

"Saw it was empty."

"Well, surprise ruined, I guess. Also, Fizz, why do you still have your cane?" He gestured towards the cane which Fizz was currently leaning on. "I know you can walk just fine now, what do you need it for?"

"Insurance," he responded. "Just trust me on this."

"Okay," Interloper said, unsure of what to think about that. "So, the news."

Fizz sighed, then looked at Kaurna. "You're up," he said.

"Inty," she began, sitting down in the chair across the living room. "I have something to confess."

"What is it?"

"I haven't been entirely honest with you."

"How so?"

"I've been…unfaithful."

"Excuse me?" His eyes grew wide.

At that moment, Fizz coughed, earning him a glare from Interloper.

"What?" Interloper asked him. He gave no answer, so he moved onto the next question. "What do you mean, 'unfaithful?'"

"I have…slept with someone else."

"You what?!" Interloper got up and walked over to Kaurna's chair. "You…cheated on me?" He demanded, pointing as his chest.

Kaurna looked down at her feet. "Yes," she said after a pause.

"Who touched you?" he demanded.

"Inty, believe me, I…I did not desire to!"

"Who did it?"

"Inty, believe me, I-"

"WHO?" he roared, and a glass shattered in the kitchen, causing Eagle to jump.

"Interloper, you need to calm down," Fizz warned. Interloper glared at him again.

"Don't you tell me what to do, Fizz," he growled. He turned to Kaurna once more. "Who did this?"

"I did!" Kaurna protested.

"With who? Who thought they could steal you away?"

"I will tell you if you calm down!"

"TELL ME!"

"Interloper, seriously, just breathe a little," Fizz said, ignoring Interloper's request to remain quiet.

"I will not tell you until you calm down," Kaurna said again.

"Why are you protecting this person?" asked Interloper, clearly distraught.

"I just-"

"Do you want this person more than me?"

"No, she doesn't," Fizz interjected.

"You don't love me?" Interloper asked, ignoring Fizz again.

"I do!" Kaurna replied.

"Then why won't you tell me?"

"Because I'm scared you'll kill her!"

Interloper fell silent for a few seconds. "Her?" he asked to make sure he heard right.

"Interloper, it was Ash," Fizz confirmed.

Interloper turned towards Fizz again, hatred on his face, eyes narrowed. "You knew about this, didn't you?"

"Oh, I should've seen this coming!" Eagle said. "There was a reason Kaurna was avoiding her on the trip the other day!"

Interloper's eyes widen at this. "When was it?"

"It was…twice," Kaurna responded.

"Twice?"

"We only did it once-"

"When did this start?"

"The day you all went to the mall."

Interloper went silent again.

"Ash texted me while we were at the bar," Fizz began.

"She bragged about it, didn't she?" Interloper asked him.

"Yep, pretty much."

"When was the second time?"

"Yesterday," Kaurna told him, still looking at her feet.

"The day after we got back…"

"I am sorry! She would not leave until we-"

"She forced herself on you?!"

"Mmm, not entirely," Fizz interrupted again.

"You...you let her, didn't you?"

"Yes," she confirmed.

Interloper paused, and then walked towards the door. "I'll be back in a while," he stated, opening the door.

"Where are you going?" Fizz demanded.

"Out."

At this, Eagle put up his hand. "Guys, just let him go, he needs time alone."

"Uh, Fizz?" Kaurna asked.

"What?"

"He's gone." Interloper had simply vanished from where he was standing.  
"Oh, FUCK!" Fizz opened a portal in the middle of the living room.

"Wait, where did he go?" Eagle asked.

"Probably to kill Ash! Kaurna, let's go!"  
"Wait, this is Interloper we're talking about, would he really kill her?"

"Possibly!" Kaurna responded, and she and Fizz jumped through the portal, leaving Eagle in the apartment alone.

"Well, I'll just leave them to that," he said.

The portal opened in Ash's bedroom, where she was crying on the bed. Hearing the portal open, she rolled over and looked at them.

"W…what are you guys doing here?" she sniffed.

"He…is not here?" Kaurna looked around in disbelief.

"Maybe he's not here just yet," Fizz said.

"But he teleported…to where is the question." She turned to Ash. "Ash, have you seen Interloper?"

"Uh, no," she said. At that moment, she simply flew from her bed out the window, limp like a ragdoll.

"WHAT?" Kaurna exclaimed, rushing over to the window.

"Fantastic," Fizz said sarcastically and joined her.

Outside, Ash was flying towards Interloper, who was hovering. Her neck landed right in his hand, and he held her there.

"Hello, Ash," he calmly said. "We need to talk." At this, they began ascending into the air.

Fizz and Kaurna teleported outside below Interloper.

"This is not good," said Kaurna, beginning to panic. "If he drops her, there's no way she'll live."

Fizz pulled his cane out and aimed it directly at Interloper's head. "I'm warning you!" he shouted.

"Stop!" Kaurna said, pointing the cane back to the ground. "If you hit Inty, he may drop Ash! They are too high up!"

Suddenly, another portal opened, and out stumbled Eagle. "Okay, are you guys done here?" he said. "I've been waiting- woah." He noticed Interloper and Ash up in the air.

"I can catch Ash," Fizz said. "Hard but not impossible."

"Wow, I sorely underestimated Interloper," Eagle exclaimed. "Didn't think he'd take it this far."

_~~Epic transition to Interloper and Ash~~_

"Ash," Interloper said, still calm as ever. "You just had to go and piss me off, didn't you?"

"I didn't," she protested. "I just…"

"You couldn't let two people be happy. You just had to drive them apart."

Ash began sobbing again.

"You know what? I can tell that those tears are genuine. But…that's not gonna save you." He then grabbed her neck with his other hand and squeezed, strangling her.

Back on the ground, the three stared up at him.

"He's not dropping her, what's he doing?" Eagle asked.

"He's…he is strangling her!" Kaurna exclaimed.

"He-" Eagle cut himself off. "Oh, fuck. Fizz, you gotta do something!"

"Fucking," Fizz swore, shooting an electric dart at Interloper. Although he felt the shock, it did absolutely nothing.

"I think we'll need more than one," Kaurna said, worried that Ash wouldn't make it much longer. Fizz shot two more, but Interloper saw them coming and dodged them.

"Alright, drastic measures," Fizz said.

"Do not kill him!" Kaurna exclaimed.

"You don't mean the kill dart, do you?" Eagle asked.

"I'm not gonna kill him!" Fizz denied. "Why does everybody jump to that conclusion?" He opened up a portal right above Interloper and Ash, causing Interloper to look up in confusion, distracted. Fizz then shot two more shock darts, and in Interloper's distraction, they both struck home, causing him and Ash to start falling. Fizz opened a portal below them, but before they fell through it, Interloper regained his control and grabbed Ash, ascending once more. He then glared at Fizz.

"Interloper, this won't solve anything!" cried Eagle. "What good will having the weight of her death on you do?"

"Please don't kill her!" pleaded Kaurna.

"Honestly," Fizz began. "I'm just waiting for him to repeat one of my one-liners."

"Hey, Fizz!" Interloper called. He reached out his hand and the cane flew into it.

"Oh, for fuck's sake…"

Interloper opened a portal beside him and shot the cane through it. The dart flew through the portal, reappearing behind Fizz, hitting him in the back. Fizz, however, didn't even flinch.

"So, Fizz, how do you like a taste of your own medicine?" Interloper then realized that it was completely useless. "Huh?"

"Do you honestly think I'd be affected by my own darts? I've learned my lesson with that one."

"How about her?" Interloper then pointed it at Ash.

"Interloper, stop this!" Eagle said. "We're trying to help you out here, just stop!"

Interloper ignored him. "I remember one of these darts kills," he said. "Now, Fizz, which one might that be, hmm?"

"This one?" Fizz asked, holding up a purple dart.

Interloper scoffed. "Fine then, guess it's the old fashioned way then." He then hit Ash over the head with it.

"Michael, stop!" Kaurna screamed. Everybody froze.

"Michael?" Eagle said. "His…real name."

Interloper began shaking.

"Please, Michael!" pleaded Kaurna. "Do not kill her! This is not like you at all!"

"You need to think about this," Fizz began. "Would Kaurna love a murderer? Would she want to date one?"

Interloper began descending slowly. He reached the ground, dropped Ash, and then fell to his knees.

Kaurna ran over to him. "Inty!" she cried, throwing her arms around him.

"I…" he began, only to fall silent.

"You made the right choice," Fizz said, scooping Ash up into his arms.

"I almost killed her…"

"But you didn't," Eagle protested.

"I would've."

"Kaurna stopped you, she wouldn't let you do that."

"Kaurna…I…"

"Hell, Fizz probably would've found a way had not Kaurna done something about it."

"If I'm being perfectly honest," Fizz said. "I would've thrown that dart at you had that continued."

"This'll happen again, won't it?" said Interloper, concerned.

"Oh, Inty…"

"What makes you say that?" Eagle inquired.

"I've gotten mad before," he replied. "She stopped me, but…what's to say it won't happen again?"

Eagle looked him right in the eyes. "You know what? Nothing will stop you from doing it again, I've seen how this works. But that doesn't mean we can't prepare for it. We know what stops you now."

"Let me ask you this, then." He returned the stare. "Are you prepared to kill me?"

Eagle took a step back. "What? No, I could never do that."

"I say that because I probably would've killed Ash had not Kaurna intervened." He paused. "No, I _would've _killed her, there is no maybe."

"Inty, no-"

Interloper cut her off. "I think it's best if I leave." He proceeded to stand up. "I should've never gotten attached like I did."

"Interloper, stop." Eagle stood his ground. "Think about what you're doing here."

"I DON'T BELONG HERE!" he shouted in Eagle's face. He then looked down at the ground. "It's not like you guys will remember anyways."

"What? No, we've done too much, there's no way we'll forget you."

"When I leave a universe, I take away any and all traces of me, especially memories."

"Then stay. If not for our sake, then for Kaurna's. I know for a fact that you'll remember us, and there will always be this tear in your soul, this big hole where we were."

"There's always a hole! There's always a tear!"

"Then why make it bigger?"

"I'll just feel nothing…again." He sighed again. "It's for the best."

"Interloper, look at Kaurna." He motioned at Kaurna, who was still on the ground, in tears. "She wants you to stay, you need to stay here."

"Please do not leave me!" she pleaded, grabbing onto his legs.

"So you'll just throw this away, the opportunity of a lifetime?"

Fizz reached out and grabbed Eagle's arm. "Eagle, just stop," he said.

Eagle yanked his arm away. "He can't just leave!" He then sighed. "But I guess I'm making no difference."

"My turn," Fizz then said and approached Interloper. "Look, think of it this way. You hang out with me, none of you care about the fact that I've killed. Twice, for that matter."

"Are you deaf or just stupid?" Interloper asked. "I'll never trust Kaurna and she'll always be afraid of me! What kind of relationship is that?"

"Does she _look _afraid?"

Interloper looked down at Kaurna, a tear-streaked mess. "No…she looks…sad."

"That's because you're leaving!" Eagle stated. "It's not because she's scared of you, she wants you to stay. Interloper, she loves you more than you realize."

"I leave, she won't remember me. Not her, not Ash, not Betty. Nor you, Ngyes, or Aileen. Nobody else we met in this universe."

"I assure you that I will remember," Fizz said.

"She wouldn't remember me, so there would be no hole." Kaurna then hugged Interloper tightly.

"Frankly, I think you're an idiot for wanting to leave," said Fizz again.

At this, Kaurna stood up and slowly kissed Interloper, and the two didn't break apart for a good while. He pulled her in tightly, and didn't let go. Eventually, they broke apart.

"Come on, Inty," Kaurna said, grabbing his hand. "Let's go home." Interloper nodded his head, and the two walked off in silence, hand in hand.

"Well…that could've gone worse," said Eagle after a pause.

"Uh, no, that was as bad as it could've gone." Fizz opened a portal.

"Really?" Eagle asked. "I mean, she or Interloper could be dead right now. I'd say that would've been worse."

"I guess."

"But wow, was that intense. Never been in that kind of situation before, and that's saying something." He paused. "So…we go home now?"

"I guess so."

"Alright, well…" Eagle threw open a portal. "Guess I'll be seeing you around. You know where to find me." He walked through and the portal closed.

Fizz sighed, clapping his hands and opening his own portal, walking through, carrying Ash's limp body in his arms.


End file.
